Fandom Distorted Mirror [IC]

[MidwayLives]

"Sure you're not just gonna stab us in the back the second it looks like it might not go our way? Oh right, nothing to say. I guess just do somethin' sassy and keep standing there then. Your fashion sense is still all kindsa crappy, by the by. The bowler? Doesn't work."

Neo waved her hand.

Even if backstabbing had been on the agenda, the fact that it meant:

-Working another 'thing' like Ozpin
-Being forced into it
-....That blonde bitch who killed this world's Roman.

Though she exhaled and tucked her hands in the pockets of her pants. Hush was still lost to her but...she'd figure it out.

At the crack about the bowler hat, Neo's eyes narrowed. For the briefest of seconds she'd considered that maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if this bird had gotten his wings clipped back at Haven. Everyone in this damn upside down world always had one crack or another to make about her outfit and she was sick of it. Stripper this, crappy that, it went on and on.
​

Nora wasn't overly pleased that Neo also volunteered, if the frown and distrustful sidelong look was any indication.

 

[MidwayLives]

"Okay. So we got our volunteers. And if nobody has any suggestions, then all that's left is figuring out who's got a date with Oz and who's gonna portal to Yang as a diversion. Honestly, I couldn't tell ya which is gonna be more dangerous; so if anyone has a preference, feel free to shout it out."

Masque had been silently sitting in her seat, growling under her breath.

Her nails digging into the wood of the chair she was sitting in.

At the mention of her Yang though, Masque's eyes lit up. "Please! You have to let me help! I can help keep my Yang from messing up your plans!"
​

Vernal, on the other hand, did speak up. She coughed, drawing attention. "Hold up. There is something I want to know. Set somethin' straight about this plan. When you all hop through one portal or another, you intend to keep them open while you're there, yeah? If so, someone has to stay back to make sure nobody unwanted comes through to this side, right? That can be me." She offered. Really wasn't keen on jumping into grimm HQ and seeing whatever horrendous monsters could be lurking there. The stuff of nightmares.

....

"....Or I can help Vernal. She knows me. You could have two of us guarding the portal back here!" ​

 

[MyrtenRose]

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Yang let out a long huff of air, her first sound in a long while about ten days, and raised her hand from where she'd been leaning against the wall behind Qrow's initial speech point.

"This probably goes without saying, but I'm on the Ozma team."

Watts glanced over to where Cinder made her dynamic entrance, seated backwards in a chair with his arms resting on the back. He gave her new clothes a once over with a slightly bemused frown before he shifted his focus back to Qrow.

"Serious problem with the plan as outlined: Its stupid and you're all going to die."

"Dude-"

"-More specific and techinically minor problem, there's a relic here that Ozpinma very much wants. We're not actually going to take that through the portal, are we?"

Penny had been listening with rapt attention, but Watts had beaten her to the punch in opening his mouth, and she closed it again and gently clasped her hands behind her back to politely wait her turn as she bounced on her heels, though not before shooting Cinder a quick wave.

 

[Gus Gungus]

Yang let out a long huff of air, her first sound in a long while about ten days, and raised her hand from where she'd been leaning against the wall behind Qrow's initial speech point.

"This probably goes without saying, but I'm on the Ozma team."

Watts glanced over to where Cinder made her dynamic entrance, seated backwards in a chair with his arms resting on the back. He gave her new clothes a once over with a slightly bemused frown before he shifted his focus back to Qrow.

"Serious problem with the plan as outlined: Its stupid and you're all going to die."

"Dude-"

"-More specific and techinically minor problem, there's a relic here that Ozpinma very much wants. We're not actually going to take that through the portal, are we?"

Penny had been listening with rapt attention, but Watts had beaten her to the punch in opening his mouth, and she closed it again and gently clasped her hands behind her back to politely wait her turn as she bounced on her heels, though not before shooting Cinder a quick wave.

"Anyone with a filter wanna put whatever he just said into less annoying words for me?" Qrow intoned evenly, having initially swiveled his way only to keep right on swiveling and end up at a conversational angle to Penny instead, regarding her just as patiently. "Sorry. Kinda tuned out the snotty punk station back around the train ride. Y'know, since I'm older than fourteen."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Masque had been silently sitting in her seat, growling under her breath.

Her nails digging into the wood of the chair she was sitting in.

At the mention of her Yang though, Masque's eyes lit up. "Please! You have to let me help! I can help keep my Yang from messing up your plans!"

“...Wait, what...?”​

....

"....Or I can help Vernal. She knows me. You could have two of us guarding the portal back here!"

“Huh?” Cinder blinked.

Vernal glanced at Masque, taking a second and longer look at her. It had been...so long. Still, the former spring maiden nodded. Not that she was here for her oh so valued opinions, but still. If that was the plan, she was behind it.​

"This probably goes without saying, but I'm on the Ozma team."

“Say what?”​

"Serious problem with the plan as outlined: Its stupid and you're all going to die."

"Dude-"

"-More specific and techinically minor problem, there's a relic here that Ozpinma very much wants. We're not actually going to take that through the portal, are we?"

Penny had been listening with rapt attention, but Watts had beaten her to the punch in opening his mouth, and she closed it again and gently clasped her hands behind her back to politely wait her turn as she bounced on her heels, though not before shooting Cinder a quick wave.

“........................???”

There was plenty to process here, with it beginning to sink in that she had completely misread the room and the reasons all were gathered here. So confused, taken aback and trying to process was she that it was not clear if she even noticed Penny’s wave directed her way.​

View attachment 849406

"Anyone with a filter wanna put whatever he just said into less annoying words for me?" Qrow intoned evenly, having initially swiveled his way only to keep right on swiveling and end up at a conversational angle to Penny instead, regarding her just as patiently. "Sorry. Kinda tuned out the snotty punk station back around the train ride. Y'know, since I'm older than fourteen."​

“HEY HELLO FULL STOP!”

Cinder waved her arms frantically to draw attention. “What plan?!? What are you all talking about??? Someone anyone please explain?! I kinda...” She’d gone off on a walk to clear her head, but with Masque’s words about how she and her darker self were so alike still echoing in her head, that trek had turned into a late night visit to one of Vacuo’s still open shops. A new, different look. But that was one of the least of her concerns now. Cinder shook her head, deciding against bothering to elaborate.

“...well, I missed a lot! Can somebody bring me up to speed?”​

 

[Gus Gungus]

“HEY HELLO FULL STOP!”

"WHADDAYA WANT, FOR ME TO GO THROUGH IT A THIRD TIME 'CAUSE CINDY LOU-WHO WAS BUSY GETTING A MAKEOVER AT 4 IN THE MORNING?!?!"

Qrow's return volley, though thankfully not loud enough to wake anyone in the spacious inn, was more aggressively booming than he intended, the huntsman still on edge from the fraught exchange with his distortion. Taking a moment to breathe, he ran a hand down his face with a rueful sigh.

"Your buddy here's gonna tell ya you shouldn't be part of this anyways. Speaking as the guy whose job it was to watch the Fall Maiden, I can't exactly pretend he's wrong on that one. Back in the day bringing one of the most powerful sources of magic on the planet within striking range of the forces of darkness was what we called 'screwing up.'" The precise angling of his gaze had, at some point during the sentence, switched from the room's first maiden to its second, and by the time he finished he was leveling Yang with a hard, probing stare that seemed to embody the stern grimace of the huntsman, the disapproving frown of the uncle and the questioning scrutiny of Ozpin's former agent in one.

If she shrugged all that off like he figured she would, he sighed and tossed his focus back to Cinder.

"You and brainiac taking the relics, getting clear and grouping back up with us afterward isn't the worst idea."​

 

[Gus Gungus]

At the mention of her Yang though, Masque's eyes lit up. "Please! You have to let me help! I can help keep my Yang from messing up your plans!"

"First off, no. Second, you should think about calling her something else." He also growled back to this when it was appropriate to have done so, having forgotten to in his previous post. :|

​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"WHADDAYA WANT, FOR ME TO GO THROUGH IT A THIRD TIME 'CAUSE CINDY LOU-WHO WAS BUSY GETTING A MAKEOVER AT 4 IN THE MORNING?!?!"

"That's...that's not....I..." Cinder started to stammer before she shook her head. "I didn't know! I didn't think I would be missed for a short time, alright? I...ugh, nevermind. Forget it." Big internal mood:

"Your buddy here's gonna tell ya you shouldn't be part of this anyways. Speaking as the guy whose job it was to watch the Fall Maiden, I can't exactly pretend he's wrong on that one. Back in the day bringing one of the most powerful sources of magic on the planet within striking range of the forces of darkness was what we called 'screwing up.'" The precise angling of his gaze had, at some point during the sentence, switched from the room's first maiden to its second, and by the time he finished he was leveling Yang with a hard, probing stare that seemed to embody the stern grimace of the huntsman, the disapproving frown of the uncle and the questioning scrutiny of Ozpin's former agent in one.

If she shrugged all that off like he figured she would, he sighed and tossed his focus back to Cinder.

"You and brainiac taking the relic, getting clear and grouping back up with us afterward isn't the worst idea."

"Wait, that's what you guys are talking about?!" Cinder blinked several times in surprise yet again. She had to take a few moments to let that all fully sink in, process it, before she spoke up again. "Then...then you need all the help you can get! Right? I mean...look, this is what I've been training for, you know. Trying to get stronger, better...both as a huntress and a maiden. I haven't gone through all that I have, put myself through everything that's happened, just to sit on the sidelines! I can help!" The look in the teenager's eye slowly shifted from pleading to stubbornly determined, bursts of flame flaring out from the corner of it.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"That's...that's not....I..." Cinder started to stammer before she shook her head. "I didn't know! I didn't think I would be missed for a short time, alright? I...ugh, nevermind. Forget it." Big internal mood:

"Wait, that's what you guys are talking about?!" Cinder blinked several times in surprise yet again. She had to take a few moments to let that all fully sink in, process it, before she spoke up again. "Then...then you need all the help you can get! Right? I mean...look, this is what I've been training for, you know. Trying to get stronger, better...both as a huntress and a maiden. I haven't gone through all that I have, put myself through everything that's happened, just to sit on the sidelines! I can help!" The look in the teenager's eye slowly shifted from pleading to stubbornly determined, bursts of flame flaring out from the corner of it.​

"This isn't us being sidelined, this is us doing the actual important thing while all of them run off to do something stupid and seemingly entirely pointless." Watts shot back, though mild glare was fixated on Qrow rather than his partner.

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around why you think this is any sort of plan, or what it even achieves. Unless I misunderstood your explanation, Ozpin took over miss Schnee in practically no time at all; the only thing this plan seems to do is give the monster dealer's choice for a body to snatch. I was going to just let you all cavort off to your dooms and wash our hands of this, but I can see Penny just bursting at the seems to throw herself into the fray along with you all. So please, give me a reason why any of you should even bother with this, so I know I'm not just sending my friend off to die."

Penny frowned and turned for Watts. "...I can say with some certainty that this is not how Ozpin's reincarnation usually works. And.... do you not want to prove the General wrong, Arthur? That siding with Ozpin wasn't the right choice? That we can fight back?"

"No, Penny; you can say with some certainty that this isn't how the reincarnation works for the other Ozpin. The one that didn't get his soul deep fried in the waters of the god of darkness. You four, frankly, do not know jack shit about how this Ozpin works, and are about to get half of the people on Remnant who even knows who Ozpin is killed on a random guess."

"So what, we just do nothing?" Yang growled. "If we fight him now, when he's at his weakest with a host that has no magic, then we can't beat him period."

"Wonderful; you're starting to see my problem with Salem's little shadow war then." he answered with a lifeless smirk.

"Bullshit!" Yang snapped back, throwing her hands up before jerking her hand to point out the window "If he was that unbeatable, then this Remnant would be worse than it already is"

"Only if it pleased him."

"...What?"

"What, you think he wants to rule over ashes?" Watts said with an eyeroll. "Or wait, is this the part where you tell me he wants to destroy the world? Your evil overlord seems to want that, but again, you seem to be forgetting that these are different people. Salem, ostensibly, if with incredible difficulty, can be contained. Isolated, imprisoned, so on and so forth. But a soul without a body will just leave a host as soon as it can longer fit his needs. If Ozpin wanted the world burned to the ground, well, I imagine it would already be the case."

"I..." Yang frowned, flummoxed, a uncharacteristically unsure glance tossed over to her family members

 

[Gus Gungus]

"This isn't us being sidelined, this is us doing the actual important thing while all of them run off to do something stupid and seemingly entirely pointless." Watts shot back, though mild glare was fixated on Qrow rather than his partner.

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around why you think this is any sort of plan, or what it even achieves. Unless I misunderstood your explanation, Ozpin took over miss Schnee in practically no time at all; the only thing this plan seems to do is give the monster dealer's choice for a body to snatch. I was going to just let you all cavort off to your dooms and wash our hands of this, but I can see Penny just bursting at the seems to throw herself into the fray along with you all. So please, give me a reason why any of you should even bother with this, so I know I'm not just sending my friend off to die."

Penny frowned and turned for Watts. "...I can say with some certainty that this is not how Ozpin's reincarnation usually works. And.... do you not want to prove the General wrong, Arthur? That siding with Ozpin wasn't the right choice? That we can fight back?"

"No, Penny; you can say with some certainty that this isn't how the reincarnation works for the other Ozpin. The one that didn't get his soul deep fried in the waters of the god of darkness. You four, frankly, do not know jack shit about how this Ozpin works, and are about to get half of the people on Remnant who even knows who Ozpin is killed on a random guess."

"So what, we just do nothing?" Yang growled. "If we fight him now, when he's at his weakest with a host that has no magic, then we can't beat him period."

"Wonderful; you're starting to see my problem with Salem's little shadow war then." he answered with a lifeless smirk.

"Bullshit!" Yang snapped back, throwing her hands up before jerking her hand to point out the window "If he was that unbeatable, then this Remnant would be worse than it already is"

"Only if it pleased him."

"...What?"

"What, you think he wants to rule over ashes?" Watts said with an eyeroll. "Or wait, is this the part where you tell me he wants to destroy the world? Your evil overlord seems to want that, but again, you seem to be forgetting that these are different people. Salem, ostensibly, if with incredible difficulty, can be contained. Isolated, imprisoned, so on and so forth. But a soul without a body will just leave a host as soon as it can longer fit his needs. If Ozpin wanted the world burned to the ground, well, I imagine it would already be the case."

"I..." Yang frowned, flummoxed, a uncharacteristically unsure glance tossed over to her family members

Qrow, for his part, gave a jaded sigh the moment it became apparent Arthur's input wasn't a one-and-done, and without missing a beat turned to shamble over to the unstaffed bar counter. He sidled around behind it, digging through the cabinets until he procured a glass and mottled brown bottle he hesitantly uncorked, sniffed, then poured.

By the time Watts was through he was more than a few sips deep, propped up on the countertop with his elbows and swirling the remainder of the liquid around in the glass as he considered how to answer.



"So here's the problem with smart guys."

The initial low, throaty rumble that bubbled from his lips was again addressed to the room at large, but with a demonstrative flapping motion he finally let his gaze settle on Watts with the full weight of his tight-lipped, evaluating frown. One finger on the hand holding the glass shot upright, as if to object to his own remark.

"Nah, strike that. Here's the problem with guys who walk into every room assuming they're the smartest one in it. Say, an uppity trust fund kid from Atlas who hates his own kingdom as much as he's so obviously a product of it, and who was never bullied enough to drop the chip on his shoulder and get comfortable with the idea that he doesn't have it all figured out. That there are still things he has to learn about the world, and from others. You know. Those guys." He rolled his eyes, hands raising in a half-shrug as if to maintain the pretense that he wasn't talking about anyone in particular, despite the fact that he was looking straight at who he was referring to—and everyone knew it. The sharp, bluntly observational tone he was taking was one both his nieces were well familiar with; Qrow had never been shy about giving his opinion when he thought they were screwing up, and though their rapid growth since the fall of Beacon had seen the regularity with which he deemed it necessary to invoke that side of him wane to almost nothing some of those pseudo-reamings were liable to stand out in their memories for the rest of time. "Here's the thing about those guys."

They were also fairly positive that in all those forthright conversations he had never said something even half as severe to them as his next words.

"They don't make good huntsmen."

He took another sip and set the glass down, lightly giving the countertop a light prod for emphasis.

"Soldiers, sure. Generals? Definitely. But I've never seen one take to the huntsman license for very long before he traded it in for a nice, shiny badge and a uniform, courtesy of high command. Know why?" His drawl offered no indication that he was expecting any sort of answer. "Cuz those guys are all about minimizing risk. Checks and balances, crunching the numbers. Ticking off every box they need to make sure they take the path of least resistance to their goal. Now, on paper this all sounds like exactly the kinda guy you want defending humanity from the dark, right? Sure. 'Cept then this guy, he sees how much of the dark there actually is out there. He sees how much of humanity it's swallowed up already, sees how many bustling settlements disappear overnight in your standard calendar year. And then he looks at the statistics."

A grave edge had crept into his tone at some point, eyes that carried firsthand experience of the sort of disillusionment he was talking about faraway as they lingered on the contents of his glass before he abruptly jerked that hand to point in Arthur's direction, nearly spilling it in the process.

"Pop quiz, smart guy. You know what the average life expectancy of a huntsman is?" Any makings of a reply were again cut off by Qrow providing his own flavor of answer himself, in a fashion. "Lousy. It's lower than when I was studying, and you wanna hear something real encouraging? You kids are actually closer to the digit than I am, just from the other side of it. Lightning round: How many retiree huntsmen and huntresses can you name, not counting your old teachers? You think a guy like Port just lucks into a gig he's that crappy at, or is he just one of few huntsmen alive who can claim to have reached old age? It's not a statistician's game, kid. Matter of fact, it's pretty much a crapshoot. We don't roll outta bed in the morning and do what we do 'cause it's smart, or easy, or 'cause it's a sure thing we're gonna make it back to that bed come sundown. We do it because someone has to, and if everyone thought the way you did then there wouldn't be any goddamn huntsmen, soldiers, smart guys or kingdoms left."

Qrow had, rightfully, always considered himself a pessimist. But there was a strange, almost zealous passion laden in those words, the type of fire that transcended concepts like logic and intelligence; born in the experience of seeing countless brave men and women fall where they stood against the darkness, and the ultimate belief that that had been for something. He scowled, shifting the focus of his gaze back away from Arthur and towards the others gathered as he started to stroll out from behind the bar.

"Now make no mistake, I'm not being sarcastic when I say 'smart guy'. Dismissive, sure. Contemptuous, you betcha. But the fact is, Art here is a smart guy. And this ain't the first time he's run these particular odds, crunched these particular numbers, and set that big, lumpy head of his to the task of figuring out the path of least resistance. Know what he came up with?" He stopped, pivoted, and abruptly planted his feet together where his leisurely saunter had carried him, grip tight on the door to the common room as he yanked it open and gestured out into the gloomy hallway with his drink-bearing hand.

"He went home. Can't say I blame him, but that's what he settled on. If anyone wants to be smart like Arthur, now's the time; I'm not gonna judge you. But our window could be closing, so you need to get off the ride now and let the huntsmen and huntresses in the room do their work."

He let the offer hang in the air, waiting expectantly to see who, if anyone, took it. Once those who were leaving left and those staying stayed, he gave the door a light shove to swing it shut again and made his way back towards the bar, picking up where he left off.

"Here's another fact. Oz is on his way here, right now. He has an army with him he's confident enough in to bet on against Atlas. That's not something Vacuo can stand against, but it's not a fight Theo's gonna back down from, either. Which means what happened in Vale and Mistral is gonna look like a wet candle compared to the hell that's coming for this place if we don't do something, 'cause as it stands there's no one else who can. Nada. We're it. Way I see it, the one shot we have, the one chance of averting all that death, is in the opportunity that may or may not exist tonight. Welcome to the life." The dry, humorous undertone inflecting his words now was obvious as he raised his glass and downed the last of it in one, the fire in his mouth, throat and chest over the next few seconds drawing little in the way of a physical reaction as he wiped his lips and slammed the glass upside-down on the countertop.

"One last fact for ya. It's risky, no doubt about it, but I wouldn't be letting either one of my nieces even entertain this if I thought it was a suicide mission. Think about it; Oz has no idea a strike at him is even an option for us. If both Ravens are on board and we do this right, then both teams have a straight shot from here to the terrible two and back. Easy exfil the second the tide turns. And with deference to Watts and his staggering intellect, for all he thinks we're uninformed he's making a few chasm wide leaps of his own." He crossed his arms, leaning back on the bar. "I didn't just 'know' Ozpin. Oz, working with Oz, was my entire life. I left the only other one I ever had for it."

His eyes flickered over both iterations of his sister fleetingly, the eye contact holding a different meaning for each.

"Funny. He always assumed he was the smartest guy in every room too, and it turned out all the gameplan he ever had was to run from Salem and keep what she needed hidden from her. You better believe that after the stunt that guy pulled one of the first things I did was grill his stand-in here on all the juicy little details she's been keeping to herself all these years. The look on her face was somethin' else, lemme tell ya. But it was enlightening. See, none of you know their story the way we do. None of you saw it." The cliffnotes version just couldn't measure up to what Jinn showed them, at the end of the day; and now that this Remnant's lamp was spent for the century, that was off the table. "Being able to choose who he manifests inside is new, but Oz can't just try on bodies like they're clothes. If he could, I don't see any reason why he'd be the same guy I knew by the time we showed up here. He's being punished by the gods; trapped in an endless cycle of death and rebirth. Only unlike Salem, who can't die, Oz's fate is to die, over and over. That's the qualifier for him; that's what makes it a punishment. Before he gets his next shot at living, his previous one has to end. The way my sister tells it, that came unexpectedly for him tonight courtesy of Weiss. From the way he was screwing with her before that, it sounds like Ozpin's semblance was a doozy; I can't imagine he was all too happy to lose it. Luckily, it so-happened he had a prime candidate for replacement all ready and waiting for him."

His grimace darkened as his gaze fell, though the show of sympathetic dourness wasn't necessarily on Weiss's behalf.

"One way or another, that's his body now. There's no jumping ship. Those two souls are already in the process of becoming one. But until that happens? That magic just ain't gonna flow the way it should. To what extent I dunno, but Oz is contained. He's more vulnerable than he would be otherwise and he thinks he's conquered all his battlefields for the night, and that's enough for me. I'm not conscripting anyone; think for yourselves, but if you're not sure, stay." He crossed the room again, laying Harbinger flat on a table to run some pre-mission checks. Man, the other him had taken shitty care of this thing. "But I'm done defaulting to keepaway as the only mode of engagement. I'm done watching this crappy place suck the life outta people I care about. And y'know, to tell you the truth?"

He chuckled.

"I'm feeling lucky. So, think I'm gonna go ahead and shoot my shot either way. And if push comes to shove, I know there's at least one other person in the room who's about stubborn and crazy enough have my back."

Satisfied, he turned, collapsing the weapon back down and holstering it on his waist as he started for the individual in question.

Thus it was that he walked straight past Yang and Ruby and came to a halt in front of the Raven with the shorter crop of hair, flashing the cheekiest, most shit eating grin she could recall him giving her since their younger days and giving her a thump on the shoulder as his hands took up their natural formation in his pockets.



"Right, sis?"

Well, maybe he'd just conscript one person. She had a whole backlog of stuff to make up for. :|​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"This isn't us being sidelined, this is us doing the actual important thing while all of them run off to do something stupid and seemingly entirely pointless." Watts shot back, though mild glare was fixated on Qrow rather than his partner.

"But...but..." Cinder began to reply, only to falter. It was true that the relic needed to be protected, that could not be denied. It was important to make sure that it didn't fall into the wrong hands. But at the same time, not helping in a direct attack on the world's greatest evil felt wrong. Even moreso here and now, with most of the people who intended to go through with it. "Qrow, Yang, Ruby...this isn't even their world. It really doesn't feel right that they go and fight for it while we just hang back, Arthur. I..." She trailed off into silence, not sure what else to say.​

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around why you think this is any sort of plan, or what it even achieves. Unless I misunderstood your explanation, Ozpin took over miss Schnee in practically no time at all; the only thing this plan seems to do is give the monster dealer's choice for a body to snatch. I was going to just let you all cavort off to your dooms and wash our hands of this, but I can see Penny just bursting at the seems to throw herself into the fray along with you all. So please, give me a reason why any of you should even bother with this, so I know I'm not just sending my friend off to die."

Penny frowned and turned for Watts. "...I can say with some certainty that this is not how Ozpin's reincarnation usually works. And.... do you not want to prove the General wrong, Arthur? That siding with Ozpin wasn't the right choice? That we can fight back?"

"No, Penny; you can say with some certainty that this isn't how the reincarnation works for the other Ozpin. The one that didn't get his soul deep fried in the waters of the god of darkness. You four, frankly, do not know jack shit about how this Ozpin works, and are about to get half of the people on Remnant who even knows who Ozpin is killed on a random guess."

"So what, we just do nothing?" Yang growled. "If we fight him now, when he's at his weakest with a host that has no magic, then we can't beat him period."

"Wonderful; you're starting to see my problem with Salem's little shadow war then." he answered with a lifeless smirk.

"Bullshit!" Yang snapped back, throwing her hands up before jerking her hand to point out the window "If he was that unbeatable, then this Remnant would be worse than it already is"

"Only if it pleased him."

"...What?"

"What, you think he wants to rule over ashes?" Watts said with an eyeroll. "Or wait, is this the part where you tell me he wants to destroy the world? Your evil overlord seems to want that, but again, you seem to be forgetting that these are different people. Salem, ostensibly, if with incredible difficulty, can be contained. Isolated, imprisoned, so on and so forth. But a soul without a body will just leave a host as soon as it can longer fit his needs. If Ozpin wanted the world burned to the ground, well, I imagine it would already be the case."

"I..." Yang frowned, flummoxed, a uncharacteristically unsure glance tossed over to her family members

"..............."

​

They were also fairly positive that in all those forthright conversations he had never said something even half as severe to them as his next words.

"They don't make good huntsmen."

He took another sip and set the glass down, lightly giving the countertop a light prod for emphasis.

She was even more speechless after that. A hand rose to rub at her forehead. She wanted to deny that, to say that he'd been a good leader, and one who'd always looked out for the team in his own way, that did his best to keep them safe, but the words just stuck in her throat. It was true he'd given up. That team didn't exist anymore, even though all its members were still breathing. Maybe the stories she'd read and heard of the best huntsmen and huntresses in history were idealized tales, but it was hard to imagine any of them giving up.​

"Soldiers, sure. Generals? Definitely. But I've never seen one take to the huntsman license for very long before he traded it in for a nice, shiny badge and a uniform, courtesy of high command. Know why?" His drawl offered no indication that he was expecting any sort of answer. "Cuz those guys are all about minimizing risk. Checks and balances, crunching the numbers. Ticking off every box they need to make sure they take the path of least resistance to their goal. Now, on paper this all sounds like exactly the kinda guy you want defending humanity from the dark, right? Sure. 'Cept then this guy, he sees how much of the dark there actually is out there. He sees how much of humanity it's swallowed up already, sees how many bustling settlements disappear overnight in your standard calendar year. And then he looks at the statistics."

A grave edge had crept into his tone at some point, eyes that carried firsthand experience of the sort of disillusionment he was talking about faraway as they lingered on the contents of his glass before he abruptly jerked that hand to point in Arthur's direction, nearly spilling it in the process.

"Pop quiz, smart guy. You know what the average life expectancy of a huntsman is?" Any makings of a reply were again cut off by Qrow providing his own flavor of answer himself, in a fashion. "Lousy. It's lower than when I was studying, and you wanna hear something real encouraging? You kids are actually closer to the digit than I am, just from the other side of it. Lightning round: How many retiree huntsmen and huntresses can you name, not counting your old teachers? You think a guy like Port just lucks into a gig he's that crappy at, or is he just one of few huntsmen alive who can claim to have reached old age? It's not a statistician's game, kid. Matter of fact, it's pretty much a crapshoot. We don't roll outta bed in the morning and do what we do 'cause it's smart, or easy, or 'cause it's a sure thing we're gonna make it back to that bed come sundown. We do it because someone has to, and if everyone thought the way you did then there wouldn't be any goddamn huntsmen, soldiers, smart guys or kingdoms left."

Raven was just as silent as Cinder, listening to her brother talk and more than a little guilt bubbling up inside her. She'd never been one about crunching numbers or checks and balances, but that didn't change the fact that she'd been someone who had run away from the fight as a huntress. The true test of one's value in that job was death. Facing it, staring it down...and she'd fled from it. Kept running, just to survive. But others hadn't. They stood their ground, kept going...until they didn't. Raven's thoughts focused on one in particular. She was lost in thought about how, maybe if she hadn't run from the fight then, that...things could have been different.

About how things should have been different.
​

"Here's another fact. Oz is on his way here, right now. He has an army with him he's confident enough in to bet on against Atlas. That's not something Vacuo can stand against, but it's not a fight Theo's gonna back down from, either. Which means what happened in Vale and Mistral is gonna look like a wet candle compared to the hell that's coming for this place if we don't do something, 'cause as it stands there's no one else who can. Nada. We're it. Way I see it, the one shot we have, the one chance of averting all that death, is in the opportunity that may or may not exist tonight. Welcome to the life." The dry, humorous undertone inflecting his words now was obvious as he raised his glass and downed the last of it in one, the fire in his mouth, throat and chest over the next few seconds drawing little in the way of a physical reaction as he wiped his lips and slammed the glass upside-down on the countertop.

Ruby and Nora both grimaced, almost in perfect sync. Both knew the journey ahead meant that sooner or later, the darkness was going to bring everything it had to bear down on them, but hearing it put like that only made it sink in way more. That if they failed here, the slaughter that would follow...well. That just served to increase their resolve. To make sure to not fail. Determination practically glowed in those silver eyes, and Nora's black gloved hands tightened around each other. It wouldn't be easy, but they had no intention of backing down.
​

"One last fact for ya. It's risky, no doubt about it, but I wouldn't be letting either one of my nieces even entertain this if I thought it was a suicide mission. Think about it; Oz has no idea a strike at him is even an option for us. If both Ravens are on board and we do this right, then both teams have a straight shot from here to the terrible two and back. Easy exfil the second the tide turns. And with deference to Watts and his staggering intellect, for all he thinks we're uninformed he's making a few chasm wide leaps of his own." He crossed his arms, leaning back on the bar. "I didn't just 'know' Ozpin. Oz, working with Oz, was my entire life. I left the only other one I ever had for it."

His eyes flickered over both iterations of his sister fleetingly, the eye contact holding a different meaning for each.

Both technically met that look, holding his gaze for that brief moment, but it was readily noticeable that one's thoughts were elsewhere. The other one, the Raven that called this world home, however... "I hope you're right. I really do. I hope this goes as cleanly as you make it sound." She hoped, but the tone of her voice nevertheless conveyed that she didn't expect it to. "If this was all for Weiss's sake, for the bitch who had her top mad scientist poke around in Liadan's head and did a messy number on her mind? Turned her into someone she's not? I wouldn't be on board if that were the case...but you're right. This is bigger than that, than us...so you know I'm on board. I only hope you're right." She repeated.​

"Funny. He always assumed he was the smartest guy in every room too, and it turned out all the gameplan he ever had was to run from Salem and keep what she needed hidden from her. You better believe that after the stunt that guy pulled one of the first things I did was grill his stand-in here on all the juicy little details she's been keeping to herself all these years. The look on her face was somethin' else, lemme tell ya. But it was enlightening. See, none of you know their story the way we do. None of you saw it." The cliffnotes version just couldn't measure up to what Jinn showed them, at the end of the day; and now that this Remnant's lamp was spent for the century, that was off the table. "Being able to choose who he manifests inside is new, but Oz can't just try on bodies like they're clothes. If he could, I don't see any reason why he'd be the same guy I knew by the time we showed up here. He's being punished by the gods; trapped in an endless cycle of death and rebirth. Only unlike Salem, who can't die, Oz's fate is to die, over and over. That's the qualifier for him; that's what makes it a punishment. Before he gets his next shot at living, his previous one has to end. The way my sister tells it, that came unexpectedly for him tonight courtesy of Weiss. From the way he was screwing with her before that, it sounds like Ozpin's semblance was a doozy; I can't imagine he was all too happy to lose it. Luckily, it so-happened he had a prime candidate for replacement all ready and waiting for him."

That was not a fate either would have wished for her. One, for she shared the face of her partner. Someone who had such a big heart, who had come so far and refused to let the manipulative cruelty of a terrible father keep her down. Her BFF, even if Weiss wouldn't admit it. The other couldn't say she knew Weiss as well, but the councilwoman was still somebody who'd come to her rescue against her darker self out in the tundra of Solitas. Who'd given what she could to help her as a maiden, and who...well, they shared things in common about their pasts. In certain ways, Cinder could see parts of herself in Weiss.

If the teenager hadn't managed to break away from her father when she had...she might very well have turned out even more like Weiss in the years that followed.
​

"I'm feeling lucky. So, think I'm gonna go ahead and shoot my shot either way. And if push comes to shove, I know there's at least one other person in the room who's about stubborn and crazy enough have my back."

Satisfied, he turned, collapsing the weapon back down and holstering it on his waist as he started for the individual in question.

Thus it was that he walked straight past Yang and Ruby and came to a halt in front of the Raven with the shorter crop of hair, flashing the cheekiest, most shit eating grin she could recall him giving her since their younger days and giving her a thump on the shoulder as his hands took up their natural formation in his pockets.

"Right, sis?"

That Raven blinked several times, jolted out of her thoughts-

Spoiler

-and looked towards Qrow with widened, surprised eyes. For a few pretty awkward moments she was silent, uncertain how to respond. But slowly, she managed to return that bold and cheeky grin with a smile of her own. She may have not deserved it, but she appreciated the reminder of better times that came with that damn look on his face.

"I'm with you, lil bro. To the end this time, whatever comes...if you'd truly have me." Raven slowly lifted and extended a hand, offering it for a display of solidarity.​

 

[MidwayLives]

"What, you think he wants to rule over ashes?" Watts said with an eyeroll. "Or wait, is this the part where you tell me he wants to destroy the world? Your evil overlord seems to want that, but again, you seem to be forgetting that these are different people. Salem, ostensibly, if with incredible difficulty, can be contained. Isolated, imprisoned, so on and so forth. But a soul without a body will just leave a host as soon as it can longer fit his needs. If Ozpin wanted the world burned to the ground, well, I imagine it would already be the case."

"You're wrong!"

Masque yelled as the chair fell over upon her jumping to stand up.

"You don't know the first thing about what he wants! I served him for..for...months...years..." Masque frowned. "....It all melds together. But when I first met him and he convinced me to help him, I believed that he was my best friend and that we'd be making the world a better place. Time goes by and I attack whoever he points me at. They won't listen to reason I say. I try to talk to them and they never listen. They only fight back and so do I. People end up hurt and I always thought they were in the wrong. People who just couldn't see the beauty of what our plan had in store for all the people of Remnant. But once it came true, they'd see just how mistaken they'd been."

Masque gently ran her fingers over the side of her bandaged up stump.

"I was captured, thrown into prison, left there for a while. Felt like an eternity. He only sent someone to get me once the thoughts started brewing that I wouldn't be saved. But I'd stayed true to believing in the idea of a 'better world' the whole time. But it soon became clear to me that the only scenario where he leads in a better world is where you're all dead and there's Grimm surging on every street corner, every orfice of every sewer, anywhere you can think of. The world will be his and if they rebel? You can bet it WILL be ravaged to the ground! You don't know what he plans to do....anymore than...I did at first." Masque frowned as she went to pick up her chair and slump back in it.

"You're either with him or you're just a nuisance to be utterly destroyed." ​

 

[Gus Gungus]

It had been an eventful day for the scourge of Remnant known as Dragon, the only name she felt any true affinity for at this point. Laughs were had. Skulls were busted, including more than a little of her own. Presumed dead mother figures from the distant past randomly showed up as horrifying monstrosities and she felt weirdly stellar about that, all things considered. Sucked, though. It was as if her brain couldn't focus on that particular detail for very... l̶o̷o̶o̴o̷o̴o̸n̷n̸n̶n̸g̵g̷g̵g̵g̶g̴g̸g̶g̷g̶g̸...

A dull, hazy sheen settled over her crimson eyes, giving the impression of a house with no lights on, and without any apparent further plans or direction in mind she simply knelt there, looking at nothing.

Staring.

Grinning.

Not because anything was funny.

Because she felt so good.

Upon their dismissal the rest, inevitably, had filtered from the throne room, one by one or in groups of twos and threes. Oz and the general to attend their business; those poor, precious little wolf, tiger and bear cubs, probably to get the fuck off this whale as quickly as possible judging from the pep in their step. Their own cowardly little pet lion, whatever the fuck he was still doing alive. Valkyrie's poor, brokenhearted little manlet, wherever the fuck he'd been. Not like she cared. None of them mattered. None of them were good like her.

Then kitty. Kitty was good; kitty, she liked. She never knew how much she liked her until Lefty, sad, angry little husk of pent-up hatred and trauma and pain that she'd been. Sometimes kitty reminded herself of the way she used to be, and if she was being honest the mirror that held up to her was one of various reasons the surlier her had always given her a wide berth. Or at least, tried to. They paired well together, kitten and dragon; but there wasn't a lot of bonding time clocked there. Mostly grunting, the occasional veiled threat.

Well, that was the old Dragon. The new-and-improved Dragon wasn't burdened by yesterday's model's hangups; it didn't make her feel ashamed when she looked at Blake and felt a heat rising in her chest anymore. She didn't feel those familiar stabs of panic, self-loathing and helplessness that made her want to hurt things the way she did then, every time they locked eyes and she felt her pulse quicken and a flush building in her cheeks. That wasn't her anymore. That was the bad Yang. That was the broken Yang. She was better now. She was good now. She liked how the kitty made her feel; she wanted to protect her. She wanted to help her feel good about herself, like Lefty had for her. She wanted to make her feel good, period. Any prompt or look Blake sent her way on her course from the room was the only thing that roused Dragon from the silent, trance-like state she had succumbed to, her gaze lifting to meet the faunus with a few slow, docile blinks, before something happened that, a few months ago, would've been unprecedented.



A smile crested over her face the way a wave crested over the beach. She gently lifted her arms towards her as if in oblation, as if asking her to lie down with her, as if promising to keep her safe from the mean, uncaring bitch of a world that had done this to them if she assented. Her smile didn't even falter when she walked away. That was fine. Hopefully they'd be doing a lot more talking from now on.

Maybe still some occasional grunting. If she was lucky.

And then the kitty was gone, and all that was left was Yang in an empty throne room. No matter what, it always came back to her, alone. It all returned to nothing. At least, that was how it used to be. The creature under her arm bandages shuddered, a soft growl emanating from it as it fed well off whatever pang of sorrow or loneliness tried to break the Dragon's surface, and Yang giggled in reply like a flirtatious schoolgirl, twirling a lock of hair around a finger.

She knelt that way for a long time. Until she eventually got tired.

Then she curled up by the throne like a dog and fell asleep.

---

She snapped awake an indeterminate length of time later, to the sensation of her arm growling and a strange light bathing the chamber a shade of crimson different than that of the grimm, rousing Dragon from her slumber with a few bleary blinks as her eyes focused. She didn't sleep the way her parallel counterpart did, all splayed out and loosey-goosey; no, she was the kind of pet that made itself as small as humanly possible when it slept, the ball she was curled into near fetal as she stared at the portal in the room with dawning comprehension.



She honestly kind of cringed.

"Oh, brother. This'll be good." She yawned, rubbing her eyes briefly before she let herself stretch out with head propped up by the elbow in quintessential 'draw me like one of your Atlesian girls' position, calling lazily over to the gate in an unconcerned drawl. "Hell-oooooooooooo? Remnant to deadbeat? You and whatever combination of dick twitches are lining up behind you wanna go ahead and rethink this big idea of yours? C'mon. I'll wait. Long enough for you to put two and two together and realise how fucked you all are the second so much as one of you puts a single foot through that portal, at least."

She scoffed loudly with a grimace, shaking her head before she jerked it in the direction of the Seer grimm bobbing silently in the corner.

"Smile, you're on TV. I mean, is there even a play here? Do you have any idea how desperate you all look right now?"​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Qrow, for his part, gave a jaded sigh the moment it became apparent Arthur's input wasn't a one-and-done, and without missing a beat turned to shamble over to the unstaffed bar counter. He sidled around behind it, digging through the cabinets until he procured a glass and mottled brown bottle he hesitantly uncorked, sniffed, then poured.

By the time Watts was through he was more than a few sips deep, propped up on the countertop with his elbows and swirling the remainder of the liquid around in the glass as he considered how to answer.

View attachment 849843

"So here's the problem with smart guys."

The initial low, throaty rumble that bubbled from his lips was again addressed to the room at large, but with a demonstrative flapping motion he finally let his gaze settle on Watts with the full weight of his tight-lipped, evaluating frown. One finger on the hand holding the glass shot upright, as if to object to his own remark.

"Nah, strike that. Here's the problem with guys who walk into every room assuming they're the smartest one in it. Say, an uppity trust fund kid from Atlas who hates his own kingdom as much as he's so obviously a product of it, and who was never bullied enough to drop the chip on his shoulder and get comfortable with the idea that he doesn't have it all figured out. That there are still things he has to learn about the world, and from others. You know. Those guys." He rolled his eyes, hands raising in a half-shrug as if to maintain the pretense that he wasn't talking about anyone in particular, despite the fact that he was looking straight at who he was referring to—and everyone knew it. The sharp, bluntly observational tone he was taking was one both his nieces were well familiar with; Qrow had never been shy about giving his opinion when he thought they were screwing up, and though their rapid growth since the fall of Beacon had seen the regularity with which he deemed it necessary to invoke that side of him wane to almost nothing some of those pseudo-reamings were liable to stand out in their memories for the rest of time. "Here's the thing about those guys."

They were also fairly positive that in all those forthright conversations he had never said something even half as severe to them as his next words.

"They don't make good huntsmen."

He took another sip and set the glass down, lightly giving the countertop a light prod for emphasis.

"Soldiers, sure. Generals? Definitely. But I've never seen one take to the huntsman license for very long before he traded it in for a nice, shiny badge and a uniform, courtesy of high command. Know why?" His drawl offered no indication that he was expecting any sort of answer. "Cuz those guys are all about minimizing risk. Checks and balances, crunching the numbers. Ticking off every box they need to make sure they take the path of least resistance to their goal. Now, on paper this all sounds like exactly the kinda guy you want defending humanity from the dark, right? Sure. 'Cept then this guy, he sees how much of the dark there actually is out there. He sees how much of humanity it's swallowed up already, sees how many bustling settlements disappear overnight in your standard calendar year. And then he looks at the statistics."

A grave edge had crept into his tone at some point, eyes that carried firsthand experience of the sort of disillusionment he was talking about faraway as they lingered on the contents of his glass before he abruptly jerked that hand to point in Arthur's direction, nearly spilling it in the process.

"Pop quiz, smart guy. You know what the average life expectancy of a huntsman is?" Any makings of a reply were again cut off by Qrow providing his own flavor of answer himself, in a fashion. "Lousy. It's lower than when I was studying, and you wanna hear something real encouraging? You kids are actually closer to the digit than I am, just from the other side of it. Lightning round: How many retiree huntsmen and huntresses can you name, not counting your old teachers? You think a guy like Port just lucks into a gig he's that crappy at, or is he just one of few huntsmen alive who can claim to have reached old age? It's not a statistician's game, kid. Matter of fact, it's pretty much a crapshoot. We don't roll outta bed in the morning and do what we do 'cause it's smart, or easy, or 'cause it's a sure thing we're gonna make it back to that bed come sundown. We do it because someone has to, and if everyone thought the way you did then there wouldn't be any goddamn huntsmen, soldiers, smart guys or kingdoms left."

Qrow had, rightfully, always considered himself a pessimist. But there was a strange, almost zealous passion laden in those words, the type of fire that transcended concepts like logic and intelligence; born in the experience of seeing countless brave men and women fall where they stood against the darkness, and the ultimate belief that that had been for something. He scowled, shifting the focus of his gaze back away from Arthur and towards the others gathered as he started to stroll out from behind the bar.

"Now make no mistake, I'm not being sarcastic when I say 'smart guy'. Dismissive, sure. Contemptuous, you betcha. But the fact is, Art here is a smart guy. And this ain't the first time he's run these particular odds, crunched these particular numbers, and set that big, lumpy head of his to the task of figuring out the path of least resistance. Know what he came up with?" He stopped, pivoted, and abruptly planted his feet together where his leisurely saunter had carried him, grip tight on the door to the common room as he yanked it open and gestured out into the gloomy hallway with his drink-bearing hand.

"He went home. Can't say I blame him, but that's what he settled on. If anyone wants to be smart like Arthur, now's the time; I'm not gonna judge you. But our window could be closing, so you need to get off the ride now and let the huntsmen and huntresses in the room do their work."

He let the offer hang in the air, waiting expectantly to see who, if anyone, took it. Once those who were leaving left and those staying stayed, he gave the door a light shove to swing it shut again and made his way back towards the bar, picking up where he left off.

"Here's another fact. Oz is on his way here, right now. He has an army with him he's confident enough in to bet on against Atlas. That's not something Vacuo can stand against, but it's not a fight Theo's gonna back down from, either. Which means what happened in Vale and Mistral is gonna look like a wet candle compared to the hell that's coming for this place if we don't do something, 'cause as it stands there's no one else who can. Nada. We're it. Way I see it, the one shot we have, the one chance of averting all that death, is in the opportunity that may or may not exist tonight. Welcome to the life." The dry, humorous undertone inflecting his words now was obvious as he raised his glass and downed the last of it in one, the fire in his mouth, throat and chest over the next few seconds drawing little in the way of a physical reaction as he wiped his lips and slammed the glass upside-down on the countertop.

"One last fact for ya. It's risky, no doubt about it, but I wouldn't be letting either one of my nieces even entertain this if I thought it was a suicide mission. Think about it; Oz has no idea a strike at him is even an option for us. If both Ravens are on board and we do this right, then both teams have a straight shot from here to the terrible two and back. Easy exfil the second the tide turns. And with deference to Watts and his staggering intellect, for all he thinks we're uninformed he's making a few chasm wide leaps of his own." He crossed his arms, leaning back on the bar. "I didn't just 'know' Ozpin. Oz, working with Oz, was my entire life. I left the only other one I ever had for it."

His eyes flickered over both iterations of his sister fleetingly, the eye contact holding a different meaning for each.

"Funny. He always assumed he was the smartest guy in every room too, and it turned out all the gameplan he ever had was to run from Salem and keep what she needed hidden from her. You better believe that after the stunt that guy pulled one of the first things I did was grill his stand-in here on all the juicy little details she's been keeping to herself all these years. The look on her face was somethin' else, lemme tell ya. But it was enlightening. See, none of you know their story the way we do. None of you saw it." The cliffnotes version just couldn't measure up to what Jinn showed them, at the end of the day; and now that this Remnant's lamp was spent for the century, that was off the table. "Being able to choose who he manifests inside is new, but Oz can't just try on bodies like they're clothes. If he could, I don't see any reason why he'd be the same guy I knew by the time we showed up here. He's being punished by the gods; trapped in an endless cycle of death and rebirth. Only unlike Salem, who can't die, Oz's fate is to die, over and over. That's the qualifier for him; that's what makes it a punishment. Before he gets his next shot at living, his previous one has to end. The way my sister tells it, that came unexpectedly for him tonight courtesy of Weiss. From the way he was screwing with her before that, it sounds like Ozpin's semblance was a doozy; I can't imagine he was all too happy to lose it. Luckily, it so-happened he had a prime candidate for replacement all ready and waiting for him."

His grimace darkened as his gaze fell, though the show of sympathetic dourness wasn't necessarily on Weiss's behalf.

"One way or another, that's his body now. There's no jumping ship. Those two souls are already in the process of becoming one. But until that happens? That magic just ain't gonna flow the way it should. To what extent I dunno, but Oz is contained. He's more vulnerable than he would be otherwise and he thinks he's conquered all his battlefields for the night, and that's enough for me. I'm not conscripting anyone; think for yourselves, but if you're not sure, stay." He crossed the room again, laying Harbinger flat on a table to run some pre-mission checks. Man, the other him had taken shitty care of this thing. "But I'm done defaulting to keepaway as the only mode of engagement. I'm done watching this crappy place suck the life outta people I care about. And y'know, to tell you the truth?"

He chuckled.

"I'm feeling lucky. So, think I'm gonna go ahead and shoot my shot either way. And if push comes to shove, I know there's at least one other person in the room who's about stubborn and crazy enough have my back."

Satisfied, he turned, collapsing the weapon back down and holstering it on his waist as he started for the individual in question.

Thus it was that he walked straight past Yang and Ruby and came to a halt in front of the Raven with the shorter crop of hair, flashing the cheekiest, most shit eating grin she could recall him giving her since their younger days and giving her a thump on the shoulder as his hands took up their natural formation in his pockets.

View attachment 849997

"Right, sis?"

Well, maybe he'd just conscript one person. She had a whole backlog of stuff to make up for. :|​

Watts kept his level stare on Qrow throughout the speech he levied on him. Or rather used him as the springboard for his little inspirational 'follow me into hell' number.

He snorted.

"Right. How many of the huntsmen that make up that age statistic even knew the name Ozpin? Don't act like this is the norm for our profession, bird man. I was ready to hunt grimm; not go toe to incorporeal darkness imbued toe the gods' personal plaything." He replied dully. "And yet regardless of however I've 'crunched the odds', as if this is just some weird math problem we're all trying to solve, I'm still here. But forgive me if I'm not willing to trust my friends' lives to a drunk with a bad luck semblance, a blonde who's contributions so far have been swearing and furtive glances, and the clone of the crazy woman in the corner who's said literally nothing."

"You're wrong!"

Masque yelled as the chair fell over upon her jumping to stand up.

"You don't know the first thing about what he wants! I served him for..for...months...years..." Masque frowned. "....It all melds together. But when I first met him and he convinced me to help him, I believed that he was my best friend and that we'd be making the world a better place. Time goes by and I attack whoever he points me at. They won't listen to reason I say. I try to talk to them and they never listen. They only fight back and so do I. People end up hurt and I always thought they were in the wrong. People who just couldn't see the beauty of what our plan had in store for all the people of Remnant. But once it came true, they'd see just how mistaken they'd been."

Masque gently ran her fingers over the side of her bandaged up stump.

"I was captured, thrown into prison, left there for a while. Felt like an eternity. He only sent someone to get me once the thoughts started brewing that I wouldn't be saved. But I'd stayed true to believing in the idea of a 'better world' the whole time. But it soon became clear to me that the only scenario where he leads in a better world is where you're all dead and there's Grimm surging on every street corner, every orfice of every sewer, anywhere you can think of. The world will be his and if they rebel? You can bet it WILL be ravaged to the ground! You don't know what he plans to do....anymore than...I did at first." Masque frowned as she went to pick up her chair and slump back in it.

"You're either with him or you're just a nuisance to be utterly destroyed." ​

"-And she's said lunatic so I don't really feel comfortable taking her advisement on any of this." He added dryly, waving a vague hand in masque's direction

Yang, who was in the middle of failing not to crack a tiny smile at her uncle and mom's little moment, blinked a few times and turned towards Watts with a affronted frown. "I-hey! Leave Ruby out of this, she's just... shy!"

She huffed and finally pushed herself off the wall, her tone shifting to somber

"Look; If we had the time to come up with anything more complex or safer than 'knock them out and tie them up', we would. But we do have a direct line to Salem if we all make it out of there-" She said with a glance towards the other Raven in the room. "-and if anyone has a more permanent solution, it'd be her. And this is the only chance we're probably gonna have in a long while to take the fight directly to him like this, before he gets his mojo back. Do you really wanna pass that up?" She asked, hands on her hips. "This may not be our world, but I don't wanna see Vacuo two go up in flames any more than Vacuo one. I've got friends, some who might've even escaped becoming some terrible funhouse mirror alternate universe fanfic grimdark versions of themselves. And regardless of whether you think Oz want to rule it all or burn it all, some version of that is gonna happen if we don't do something about it."

...

"...uh. No offense sis" She offered contritely to whatever corner Masque was in.


Watts rolled his eyes at that unecessary addition, but otherwise drummed his fingers on the back of the chair as he glowered at Yang.

"...I am not letting my partner go into the belly of the beast without me."

"So come!" Yang answered brightly

"-And this doesn't change the fact that bringing the relic that close to Ozpin, no matter how much of a chance this is, even if its adding a few percentage points to what I'd normally call zero percent chance plan." he cut off. "Not to mention that your uncle had the right of it; I can't stop you from risking your own idiot life, but bringing the fall maiden within the grasp of Ozpin when the fall vault is still to be opened would be the height of stupidity. If... Penny wishes to go, I won't stop her, but Cinder and I will stay on this side of hte portal and ensure the relic doesn't fall into enemy hands while you are away."

Penny offered Watts a small smile.

"I appreciate your concern, friend Watts,"

"-That is all it is, and I'd implore you to-"

"-But you would have a .00000000000000005% chance of stopping me if you tried."

"Not the point"

 

[Gus Gungus]

"I'm with you, lil bro. To the end this time, whatever comes...if you'd truly have me." Raven slowly lifted and extended a hand, offering it for a display of solidarity.

Like her leaving to begin with wasn't one of the whole reasons he became an alcoholic.

Watts kept his level stare on Qrow throughout the speech he levied on him. Or rather used him as the springboard for his little inspirational 'follow me into hell' number.

He snorted.

"Right. How many of the huntsmen that make up that age statistic even knew the name Ozpin? Don't act like this is the norm for our profession, bird man. I was ready to hunt grimm; not go toe to incorporeal darkness imbued toe the gods' personal plaything." He replied dully. "And yet regardless of however I've 'crunched the odds', as if this is just some weird math problem we're all trying to solve, I'm still here. But forgive me if I'm not willing to trust my friends' lives to a drunk with a bad luck semblance, a blonde who's contributions so far have been swearing and furtive glances, and the clone of the crazy woman in the corner who's said literally nothing."




"-And she's said lunatic so I don't really feel comfortable taking her advisement on any of this." He added dryly, waving a vague hand in masque's direction

Yang, who was in the middle of failing not to crack a tiny smile at her uncle and mom's little moment, blinked a few times and turned towards Watts with a affronted frown. "I-hey! Leave Ruby out of this, she's just... shy!"

She huffed and finally pushed herself off the wall, her tone shifting to somber

"Look; If we had the time to come up with anything more complex or safer than 'knock them out and tie them up', we would. But we do have a direct line to Salem if we all make it out of there-" She said with a glance towards the other Raven in the room. "-and if anyone has a more permanent solution, it'd be her. And this is the only chance we're probably gonna have in a long while to take the fight directly to him like this, before he gets his mojo back. Do you really wanna pass that up?" She asked, hands on her hips. "This may not be our world, but I don't wanna see Vacuo two go up in flames any more than Vacuo one. I've got friends, some who might've even escaped becoming some terrible funhouse mirror alternate universe fanfic grimdark versions of themselves. And regardless of whether you think Oz want to rule it all or burn it all, some version of that is gonna happen if we don't do something about it."

...

"...uh. No offense sis" She offered contritely to whatever corner Masque was in.


Watts rolled his eyes at that unecessary addition, but otherwise drummed his fingers on the back of the chair as he glowered at Yang.

"...I am not letting my partner go into the belly of the beast without me."

"So come!" Yang answered brightly

"-And this doesn't change the fact that bringing the relic that close to Ozpin, no matter how much of a chance this is, even if its adding a few percentage points to what I'd normally call zero percent chance plan." he cut off. "Not to mention that your uncle had the right of it; I can't stop you from risking your own idiot life, but bringing the fall maiden within the grasp of Ozpin when the fall vault is still to be opened would be the height of stupidity. If... Penny wishes to go, I won't stop her, but Cinder and I will stay on this side of hte portal and ensure the relic doesn't fall into enemy hands while you are away."

Penny offered Watts a small smile.

"I appreciate your concern, friend Watts,"

"-That is all it is, and I'd implore you to-"

"-But you would have a .00000000000000005% chance of stopping me if you tried."

"Not the point"

"-HOLY FRICKIN CRAP SHADDAP YOU'RE SO ANNOYING GO BACK TO DEBATE CLUB THEY HAVE YOUR MUSTACHE IN THE LOST AND FOUND," Qrow cut across as soon as the 'I have a snarky reply for everything' counter-number was done, having pretty much washed his hands of Watts by that point as far as he was concerned. :|

"So. We doin' this?"​

 

[MyrtenRose]

He snorted.

"Right. How many of the huntsmen that make up that age statistic even knew the name Ozpin? Don't act like this is the norm for our profession, bird man. I was ready to hunt grimm; not go toe to incorporeal darkness imbued toe the gods' personal plaything." He replied dully. "And yet regardless of however I've 'crunched the odds', as if this is just some weird math problem we're all trying to solve, I'm still here. But forgive me if I'm not willing to trust my friends' lives to a drunk with a bad luck semblance, a blonde who's contributions so far have been swearing and furtive glances, and the clone of the crazy woman in the corner who's said literally nothing."

"-And she's said lunatic so I don't really feel comfortable taking her advisement on any of this." He added dryly, waving a vague hand in masque's direction

Yang, who was in the middle of failing not to crack a tiny smile at her uncle and mom's little moment, blinked a few times and turned towards Watts with a affronted frown. "I-hey! Leave Ruby out of this, she's just... shy!"

"Hey!" She spoke for herself, equally affronted. "It's not about being shy, I just...well a lot of what I would have said was already said! I just didn't feel...whatever." Ruby crossed her arms.​

"Look; If we had the time to come up with anything more complex or safer than 'knock them out and tie them up', we would. But we do have a direct line to Salem if we all make it out of there-" She said with a glance towards the other Raven in the room. "-and if anyone has a more permanent solution, it'd be her. And this is the only chance we're probably gonna have in a long while to take the fight directly to him like this, before he gets his mojo back. Do you really wanna pass that up?" She asked, hands on her hips. "This may not be our world, but I don't wanna see Vacuo two go up in flames any more than Vacuo one. I've got friends, some who might've even escaped becoming some terrible funhouse mirror alternate universe fanfic grimdark versions of themselves. And regardless of whether you think Oz want to rule it all or burn it all, some version of that is gonna happen if we don't do something about it."

"What she said!" Her little sister agreed.​

Watts rolled his eyes at that unecessary addition, but otherwise drummed his fingers on the back of the chair as he glowered at Yang.

"...I am not letting my partner go into the belly of the beast without me."

"So come!" Yang answered brightly

"-And this doesn't change the fact that bringing the relic that close to Ozpin, no matter how much of a chance this is, even if its adding a few percentage points to what I'd normally call zero percent chance plan." he cut off. "Not to mention that your uncle had the right of it; I can't stop you from risking your own idiot life, but bringing the fall maiden within the grasp of Ozpin when the fall vault is still to be opened would be the height of stupidity. If... Penny wishes to go, I won't stop her, but Cinder and I will stay on this side of hte portal and ensure the relic doesn't fall into enemy hands while you are away."

Penny offered Watts a small smile.

"I appreciate your concern, friend Watts,"

"-That is all it is, and I'd implore you to-"

"-But you would have a .00000000000000005% chance of stopping me if you tried."

"Not the point"

"Well...okay. Alright, yeah. I'll go with Arthur and keep the relic safe. Just, all of you, please be...well. I want to say safe, but this plan, what's about to go down...it's going to be really difficult to stay safe. Practically impossible, really...heh. Heh." Nervous laughter intensified. "But just, do all you can to come back. Please?" There was a good chance that someone or even a few wouldn't be, but Cinder could only hope that they beat the odds here. She looked at all of them in turn before nodding and bringing her gaze back around to Watts. "Alright, Arthur. Let's go."

The teenage maiden let him lead the way out with the relic in hand, her following right behind. "I saw some good spots we could hunker down at, I think. Thanks to my walk. Unless you already got somewhere in mind." She didn't think he was that familiar with Vacuo but who knows, he might have found out some stuff with that big brain of his. She wouldn't put it past him.​

Like her leaving to begin with wasn't one of the whole reasons he became an alcoholic.

She was trying and failing at keeping the smile on her face from widening, despite knowing full well where they were heading and what lay on the other side. She couldn't help but appreciate that in some small degree, they were taking steps back to where they had once been. She had no illusions that it would be a long journey, but...well, she was going to take every step.

The other Raven did better at hiding the smile but that was still a nice moment to witness between the pair. She waited a few minutes, giving them a little time but also mostly to give time for Arthur and Cinder to get some distance away from here. When she figured that was a good enough window, the huntress turned towards Qrow.​

"So. We doin' this?"

"Yes. We are." She declared with a firm, resolute nod. But before she opened the portal, the veteran warrior glanced toward Nora and gave a second, more knowing nod. The ginger bruiser returned it, readying for what they had briefly discussed while the others had been going at it. That much confirmed, Raven gripped her sword tighter, took a deep breath...and drew and swung it all in one fluid motion, a portal to the Dragon popping to life right then and there. "Once more into the fray..."​

"Oh, brother. This'll be good." She yawned, rubbing her eyes briefly before she let herself stretch out with head propped up by the elbow in quintessential 'draw me like one of your Atlesian girls' position, calling lazily over to the gate in an unconcerned drawl. "Hell-oooooooooooo? Remnant to deadbeat? You and whatever combination of dick twitches are lining up behind you wanna go ahead and rethink this big idea of yours? C'mon. I'll wait. Long enough for you to put two and two together and realise how fucked you all are the second so much as one of you puts a single foot through that portal, at least."

She scoffed loudly with a grimace, shaking her head before she jerked it in the direction of the Seer grimm bobbing silently in the corner.

"Smile, you're on TV. I mean, is there even a play here? Do you have any idea how desperate you all look right now?"

Rather than being the least bit deterred, insulted, intimidated or afraid of anything that the way more dickish Yang had just spoken through the portal, Nora's face only wore a bold, excited grin with just the slightest touch of madness in those wide eyes. This was a really serious confrontation about to go down, possibly deathly so, but she had always been one to enjoy a good fight. That, and she really got a kick out of imagining how the other Yang's expression would look in a few moments.

Nora's response to the Dragon was as could be expected, really LOUD.

That is to say, her opened up grenade launcher fired all half dozen of the heavy explosives at once, the heart decorated projectiles sailing through the portal to slam into the Yang on the other side without so much as a spoken warning. Actions spoke louder than words.

The bruiser swiftly reloaded, letting loose with her entire salvo a second time just to be on the safe side and then reloaded a third time before Magnhild shifted back into melee form. A third bang propelled her forward as she rode upon her weapon and soared through the portal at high speeds, intending to bring the hammer down on a hopefully disoriented Dragon. That Raven quickly followed after, the portal remaining for the rest who were going to go through this one.

Ruby took a deep breath. This was it. Nora had a way about her in getting all eyes to be on her, they just needed to give her a minute or two. Then portal two, and then...

Ruby steadied herself for the situation ahead.

----------

The launched grenades were not missed by the master of the grimm. The seer caught sight of them and the heavy clouds of smoke that ensued, and even with the limited power possessed in this form as of this moment, there was enough to have that connection. But even without that, the assault would not have been missed. The echoing boom of the massive explosion that rang throughout the entire creature was hard to miss, and the following rumble as the beast shook. Ozwen straightened up, standing taller and her attention shifting away from focusing on Blake in the midst of training, turning to stare in the direction the sound came from even though she could not see it from here.

"What in..." It was safe to say she was at least a little taken aback. Someone foolhardy enough to stage an assault here and now? Hrm. The Dragon and Pyrrha and the rest aboard, not to mention the grimm themselves...a bold move. One could say extremely stupid and foolish. "Well well well. It seems we have guests to accomodate." Her gaze swung back towards Blake, a cold smile coming to life upon her face. "Wouldn't you say?"​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"Well...okay. Alright, yeah. I'll go with Arthur and keep the relic safe. Just, all of you, please be...well. I want to say safe, but this plan, what's about to go down...it's going to be really difficult to stay safe. Practically impossible, really...heh. Heh." Nervous laughter intensified. "But just, do all you can to come back. Please?" There was a good chance that someone or even a few wouldn't be, but Cinder could only hope that they beat the odds here. She looked at all of them in turn before nodding and bringing her gaze back around to Watts. "Alright, Arthur. Let's go."

The teenage maiden let him lead the way out with the relic in hand, her following right behind. "I saw some good spots we could hunker down at, I think. Thanks to my walk. Unless you already got somewhere in mind." She didn't think he was that familiar with Vacuo but who knows, he might have found out some stuff with that big brain of his. She wouldn't put it past him.

If the two were in as dire need of a pallet cleanse from Atlas's frigid tundras and technological monoliths as everyone else was, there really couldn't have been any more of a polar opposite extreme than Vacuo.

Long ago, eras before Atlas ever touched the sky or Nicholas Schnee traded his pickaxe for a ledger, it had been the most opulent and decadent of Remnant's four kingdoms. A bountiful oasis where sultans and viziers drank in the sun, living large off the profits of soil even richer in natural Dust deposits than Solitas—this, like so many other things about life in Remnant, proved to be impermanent. Comfort gave way to greed, decadence gave way to decay, and years of war, strife, intemperance and ecological disasters brought on by the climate had reduced the once splendid kingdom to something more resembling the tomb of its former self. The tan brick alleys and streets of its central city were faded and cracked to the point they all resembled one another, many of the statues of rulers and heroes past built to function as landmarks now featureless and indistinct. It was a labyrinth, and not one particularly welcome to outsiders who stuck out as sorely as Cinder and Arthur did; Vacuo during the day was about as dangerous as Mantle at night. And Vacuo at night...

Their temporary accommodation was adjacent to the market district, and the streets oscillated between bustling and eerily quiet seemingly at random depending on what turn they took. One moment they'd be picking their way through rows of stalls lit by flickering neon signs, peddlers who could spot a huntress and huntsman a mile away attempting to flag them down and demonstrate their wares, dust crystals of questionable purity slashed down to a pittance. The next would find them staring down a long, dark, unwelcoming alleyway, devoid of life and noise. It was hard to say which was worse. The eyes that tracked them through the more crowded stretches were hungry, unfriendly, and impossible to ignore in the way they lingered on the bulges under their cloaks even if lengths were taken to keep the relics concealed, but at least they were eyes they could see. Some of those alleys... it was difficult to pinpoint what it was, but one or two they deemed it wise to turn away from out of simple intuition alone. The malice that came rolling out from the dark there extended beyond that of mere pickpockets or thieves.

None of this was helped by the fact that someone was following them. It had taken a few experimental twists and turns to be sure, but whoever it was wasn't making much of an effort at hiding it outside of keeping their distance; their cloaked, hooded figure was rendered even more featureless by the cowl pulled up over their nose, and there was no apparent urgency in their step as they nevertheless followed along doggedly, stopping when they stopped and inevitably emerging from some shortcut or other to resume the trail whenever they quickened their pace in an attempt to lose them. It ended up being so much of a distraction they nearly didn't stop themselves in time to keep from walking straight into the dishevelled merchant who popped up screaming in their field of vision, frenetically brandishing a pair of matching t-shirts that read 'I'm with stupid ' and 'At least I'm still cute' and trying to usher them back over to his stall.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! Special offer!!!!! 90% off, one night only!!! My two buddies here only!!!! The next minute only!!!!!! Some people were just BORN to have these shirts!!!!!!!! Tell me what it's gonna take!!!!!"​

 

[MyrtenRose]

...the hell is this stalker's probl--​

It ended up being so much of a distraction they nearly didn't stop themselves in time to keep from walking straight into the disheveled merchant who popped up screaming in their field of vision, frenetically brandishing a pair of matching t-shirts that read 'I'm with stupid ' and 'At least I'm still cute' and trying to usher them back over to his stall.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! Special offer!!!!! 90% off, one night only!!! My two buddies here only!!!! The next minute only!!!!!! Some people were just BORN to have these shirts!!!!!!!! Tell me what it's gonna take!!!!!"

Cinder's thought about the person trailing them was thoroughly interrupted by one of the more obnoxious street peddlers practically leaping into sight, shouting his lungs out about his shirts and doing everything short of giving them away for free. She had barely managed to skid to a halt before she would have slammed right into him, fortunately enough. She stared on in shock, about to shift that expression into an awkward smile and explain that she was not at all interested, but it didn't come, as she focused less on the guy and more on those shirts and what they actually said.

Spoiler: The neutral look of surprise instantly soured

Those shirts, it seemed pretty clear from where she was standing which one was meant for who. "What's that supposed to mean, huh?!" Cinder raised her voice right back at the guy. Owning up to her mistakes with friends and teammates was one thing, but getting straight up insulted by Joe Schmoe off the street was a whole other deal. "What the hell you mean BORN to wear?? How do you even...who do you think you are?!!!" She questioned as she stomped her foot. The person following them and the relic were temporarily forgotten in her irritated mood.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

The launched grenades were not missed by the master of the grimm. The seer caught sight of them and the heavy clouds of smoke that ensued, and even with the limited power possessed in this form as of this moment, there was enough to have that connection. But even without that, the assault would not have been missed. The echoing boom of the massive explosion that rang throughout the entire creature was hard to miss, and the following rumble as the beast shook. Ozwen straightened up, standing taller and her attention shifting away from focusing on Blake in the midst of training, turning to stare in the direction the sound came from even though she could not see it from here.

"What in..." It was safe to say she was at least a little taken aback. Someone foolhardy enough to stage an assault here and now? Hrm. The Dragon and Pyrrha and the rest aboard, not to mention the grimm themselves...a bold move. One could say extremely stupid and foolish. "Well well well. It seems we have guests to accomodate." Her gaze swung back towards Blake, a cold smile coming to life upon her face. "Wouldn't you say?"​

Blake was seated in the middle of the room thy were practicing in, legs crossed with her arms resting against them and her eyes closed with an expression of deep focus. Those eyes flickered open as the sound of the explosion echoed through the Monstro, though they didn't immediately rise to meet Ozma's gaze.

"..."


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Blake had affixed Carnelian with a quiet growl, scant inches from opening her mouth in response to yet another thinly veiled insult-

The frequency of the Dragon's gaze flitting from the inner circle over to the pale figure had grown more and more frequent, her foot bounce more and more agitated and impatient with each passing second the elephant in the room went unacknowledged. Her sense of propriety and acquiescence towards her lord lasted only as long as it took the more pressing matters of the meeting to conclude; and no further, as she growled and swiped the general's mockingly fond hair tousle away when his gentlemanly amble carried him past her. No sooner than he had stepped from the room did she speak up again, voice slightly croaky.

"Hey, so uh... what the fuck?"

She stood up abruptly, a little bit too abruptly to be considered entirely respectful. It was the kind of sudden, almost aggressive movement the Dragon of six months ago would never have dared make in the presence of her lord. That Dragon couldn't even make eye contact with her lord most of the time, the years of robbed agency, throttled warmth, shame, and violence both accrued and self-inflicted having ground her down into the ideal cultist, something resembling a subdued, trained dog. But the Dragon had been changing since the attack on Haven. Not just from the arm, though its suppression and consumption of her infinite tap of negative emotions had certainly torn down the dam and paved the way for a tidal wave of spirited confidence to supplant them.

From the other her. Seeing a version of herself who could just... brush her off like that, who could laugh and smile and crack wise at her expense while she kicked her ass up and down the academy as if the feared and menacing Dragon she'd worked so hard to reforge her identity into was nothing more than a bad joke. The other world's Yang had been so dismissive of her. So completely unfazed and unmoved by a version of her who was clearly so far removed from her idea of what Yang Xiao Long was supposed to be that she didn't even care that she had, as she probably would've put it, 'broke'. And it wasn't like that was anything on her end, either. Dragon might've seemed impetuous to the point of idiocy, but she could pay attention when she wanted. She knew how the other Yang's first encounters with this world's varieties of the rest of her pathetic friends had played out. Blake got an impassioned plea and a sympathetic ear. Schnee, frigid little goddamned simp that she was, the same. Even the fucking fetus had gotten that.

Yang got spat on. She got nothing. Like always.

Well, fuck that. It wasn't fair. If being more like that trifling bitch was the only way for Yang Xiao Long to get some fucking notice in this world, then why the hell not? She was done with settling for nothing. She was done being treated like dirt.

And she was DONE letting people ignore her.

"Okay, look. I tried. I know I this isn't exactly kosher with the whole dom vibe in here right now, and maybe I'm about to shaft myself irreversibly, but... what the FUCK?" She repeated, eyes flaring wide with such a dangerous, incredulous aura of bafflement it sparked the urge to get out of dodge in any who met her eyes not far removed from the moment before a bull charged. She thrust her arms out towards the figure, incensed to the point of erratic breathing, the way she bared her teeth in a grin in equal parts raw, disbelieving and vicious. "Am I supposed to just... not question this? Is this one of those hidden camera shows? Am I on fucking Punk'd? WHAT THE FUCK even is this? WHY is she here? And you, you, ooohhhh-ho-ho-man, I mean, I mean YOU—"


That tore it. Whatever thin veneer of restraint Yang had left went through the shredder, and she turned suddenly, gripped the chair back, and pitched it straight through one of the stained glass windows behind the throne with a frenzied shatter that showered them all in a hail of broken glass. The Dragon exploded with a wave of rolling, searing heat so intense the cavity of Monstro rumbled with discomfort all around them, taking a threatening step or two in the prostrated figure's direction with a shriek that carried every last drop of the anguish, rage, and abject misery that had been building in her heart for the last... She didn't even know how many years.

That was a lie. She knew exactly how many.

"—WHY WON'T YOU FUCKING LOOK AT ME?!"

Though neither Ozwen nor Carnelian looked at him directly, Leonardo sunk down further into his seat as if both of them had. Fear might as well have hung over him like a stormcloud, chilling him to the bone. If he had any intentions to speak, that thoroughly quashed them, his face nearly as white as Weiss's hair and desperately hoping he wouldn't be personally addressed. If Ozwen noticed any of that, it did not show on her face as she still looked towards Carnelian. The thought of Atlesian forces backing up her legions as they descend upon Vale...it did bring a smile to her face, imagining that scenario. More than that, the imagined look on Salem's face as she bore witness to that alliance...that was supremely satisfying to picture.

And as for Vacuo...Ozwen nodded. She would not say no to more disposable troops serving under her, and Atlas's robots definitely qualified. "Criminals and deviants, you say?" Her head tilted in thought. "Very well, I suppose I could look them over to determine if any of them will be of value." The losses of Arc, Valkyrie, Calavera, Rose...if there was ever a time to bolster the size of her group of personal killers and tools...this might as well be it. "As for transportation, no need." Ozwen shook her head. "We've been heading towards the kingdom this whole time. Rest easy, no, we are not going there to attack. There is simply something there I need to retrieve. After I have done so, it will be no matter at all to have you dropped off--"

"-pardon me?" Ozwen questioned sharply, turning to face Yang. But by the time she opened her mouth to speak again, the Dragon cut off whatever would have been said with an even more explosive outburst.



The anger returned full force, the fierce look on Ozwen's face matching the sheer intensity of even the Dragon's burning rage as the glass fell harmlessly around them. All the anger in the air was palpable, so much so that as Ozwen rose out of her seat, all the rest of the windows began to violently shake as if they too were about to shatter. A dark void opened up beneath the Dragon's feet but rather than swallow her up, several grimm arms shot out from within, aiming to restrain her. That was about the extent of what Ozwen could do with her limited supply of magic at the moment, which might have explained why there was no attempt at inflicting more lasting pain or punishment. Beyond the fact that this Yang would have probably enjoyed such. No, she was only intending to hold Yang back and get her to calm down to a degree. Fighting now, amongst themselves...that was not something she was about to let happen.

Ozwen held Yang back, but otherwise turned to the cloaked figure and waited expectantly. To no surprise, it was obviously who Yang figured it was, but also not. The hood got pulled back, revealing her face, the cloak parting to let the rest of her be seen by the dragon. Mismatched eyes of a different sort from Weiss or Raven stared at Yang finally, but still the figure said nothing.

Spoiler

Like Maria before her, Ozpin had seen fit to transform the person that was once simply Summer Rose into something far far more insidiously deadly, in ways even her inhuman appearance could not properly convey. It went beyond the limbs that the Dragon and the otherworldly Cinder possessed, and while those two were indeed quite a force to be reckoned with, the master of all grimm had faith that the full capabilities of all the things inhabiting the cloaked figure's body stood far beyond those arms. Likely beyond even the infamous Grimm Reaper. It was perhaps a startling reflection of what Yang could end up being if she had further outbursts such as this, or maybe a promise of what the future could hold if the dragon sought more power and more of the desire to enjoy life, as her arm had given her. But either way, Summer did not speak. She only stared, silent as a crypt, the eyes of both a human and a grimm staring deep into Yang's own.

Ozwen, however, did speak. She put herself in Yang's field of vision, standing before the dragon but in a way that did not hide Summer from her. "This is my work, she is here because I ordered her to be here, and she was not looking at you because I did not command it." Ozwen answered all of Yang's questions in order with a dangerously frigid tone, eyes narrowing further as she did so. "She serves me in much the same way the Reaper did, as you ALL do." A hand rose to lift Yang's chin up and Ozwen continued just as icily:

"I trust you have not forgotten that, even in the depths of your rage? That you remember your place? I hope so, and I also hope you will not do something so utterly stupid as what you just did ever again. Even you might find what happens then impossible to enjoy."

"Do you understand?"​

"...no."

View attachment 833201

Ordinarily somewhere in the middle of all that was probably around when the Dragon's arm would've kicked in. Whatever fear, panic, helplessness or dismay she felt welling within her would've been swallowed whole like a rodent into the maw of a serpent, and replaced by a heady rush of giggles and endorphins before so much as a flicker of it ever broke the surface of her face.

For whatever reason, that wasn't happening this time. The limb still hung limply at her side, in a state of recovery after what had befallen it earlier, and in the absence of its kiss Yang's whimper when the hood slipped loose was one of the most abject, pathetic, downtrodden noises anyone present had ever heard, the sound of a beaten animal being forced back into its cage as she was yanked to her knees. The effort she pushed back against the the floor with even one-handed was enough to send a dense network of cracks running across its surface, yet it still wasn't enough to tear her free, and though the incandescent heat pouring off her in waves left the walls scorched, warped and blackened and drew beads of sweat from even the most distant in the room it was to no avail as the flames licked at the volume of Grimm, sizzled, and were snuffed out.

"No, no, nononono FUCK NO! Fuck that, fuck you, f-fuck this, f-f-fucking FUCK—ALL OF THIS! LET GO!"

She exploded in a shrill, volatile howl, coming to life again in a frenzied spree of thrashing, bucking and clawing that actually saw several of the Grimm arms snap like high-tension cords and the petrified Dragon rise more than halfway to her feet again with a surge of adrenaline. A nigh impossible feat, albeit one rendered meaningless by the time all was said and done, though it took about a dozen more of the arms to get her truly under control as she ripped her jaw away from Ozwen's grasp and screamed, heaved and clawed in hysteric fashion. Her gaze whipped around wildly, darting anywhere except in even the vague direction of what was in front of her, desperate not to make another second of eye contact with that thing after the first; whether it was anything conscious or just some sort of deep-buried pining of the soul, the sole pair of eyes her own ended up settling on were Blake's, frantic and imploring even for as much as she knew help was probably less likely to come from there than from anywhere else in the room.

Then one of the Grimm hands snatched her hair, and it was with a deep, reluctant moan that morphed halfway into a sob that her field of view was forced back onto Summer and Ozwen, bodily autonomy apparently as much a privilege afforded to the Dragon as it had ever been. She did everything in her power to ignore the former and instead bleated feebly up at the latter, an accusing tremor in her voice and tears blinking back in her eyes.

"WHY?! W-why her, the fuck's your problem, why not fucking—ANYONE else?! I don't want this! Get off, get off get it off get this FUCKING THING OFF ME!!!!!!" Came her fierce, renewed shriek, another blast of heat buffeting Ozwen's face more directly this time. It was more an involuntary explosion of the car bomb that was her emotional state right now than any active effort to offend this time, and there was no mistaking the look in her eyes as anything but pleading.

View attachment 833234

"You said! You said I could have anything I wanted 'cause I'm good, right, 'c-cause I'm a good girl and I did good, well, wh-w-well I decided and I want you to take this FUCKING THING OFF MY ARM!"

As if in guttural acknowledgement, the Grimm appendage twisted behind her back rumbled in a low, eldritch growl, aware of its host's meaning but still too weak to intervene.​

"No."

That brief, harsh, blunt answer was the first response that came. Those deep red eyes stared over in anger, annoyance and some degree of thinly veiled disgust. Nothing about Yang's pathetic whimpering, shrill howling, violent resistance, accusatory cursing, pleading tears, none of it seemed to have any effect in reaching what passed for Ozwen's good will. "I told you that you could have any reward you wished, so long as it was in my power to give. Ridding you of that, now, after all this time is not a reward. It would only be a detriment. An impairment. That, I can not have. I will not have it. You are too valuable to me." She stepped more in front of Yang then, cutting off the view to Summer as the latter pulled her hood back up and the cloak wrapped around her in full yet again. The grimm arms currently wrapped around Yang pulled even more strongly, an attempt to compensate as a number of them released their hold and vanished back into the void.

Ozwen knelt then to be more closely beside the restrained dragon. "And you do not demand things of me like that. Nobody does. But do not worry." The reasoning for her lessening up on the grimm holding the emotionally volatile woman down became more apparent as she reached out and took hold of Yang's own arm. The slivers of magic she had were redirected away from maintaining some of those and instead into doing all she could into healing the damaged appendage even more, willing it to return to its full capability as swiftly as possible. And simultaneously alongside that, though Summer did not move or shout or even so much as make a single sound, or at least none heard over Yang's outburst, a wave of feeling cascaded outward from her just as blasts of sheer heat had from the dragon.

The anger, the sadness, fear, the need to have this thing ripped off, she could feel all of it being sapped and stripped away in near an instant. Any concerns followed shortly after, as did any will to resist further, the feeling of being unconcerned and unbothered about what was going on around her rising in their place. Only dull passive indifference remained. Ozwen observed Yang's eyes closely, waiting, even as she worked on the dragon's grimm limb. And when whatever she was looking for settled into view, her voice grew softer. Something that could be mistaken as genuinely loving, strange as it was considering from whose mouth it was coming from and who was speaking through that mouth. "As I have promised you, daughter, you will have a reward worthy of all your efforts. Trust me."​

Blake's hand had shot to Gambol's hilt the moment the Dragon had taken to the air, but any interruption on her part proved to be unnecessary. Her eyes widened slightly behind the mask at just.... what transpired after.

She knew that there was a price for failure, for questioning Lord Ozpin's strength; more than once she had been ready to receive it herself. But a punishment was something earned, and every person in this room was meant to be a warrior.

This was not a just punishment for an earned failure being recieved by a stoic warrior. This.... this was.... she didn't know what this was. Only that the sounds the Dragon were making were painfully familiar. They weren't the sounds of a willing soldier.

The effect of Ozwen's single, emphatic 'no' dealt a blow more abject and devastating in the pain-fuelled Dragon's heart than any dose of physical agony ever could no matter how excruciating, and the look of betrayal, hurt, and raw, bottomless despair that flooded her eyes as her breath hitched would've had them fade back to lilac in a heartbeat had there not been such a potent undercurrent of helpless anger to them all. They were awash with tears, glistening in the sinister crimson glare of the chapel as her face blanched, her lips started to tremble, and her chest started to heave shallow, unsteady breaths, voice finally emerging in a plaintive mewl.

"B-B-But this isn't right, this isn't what you told me! Everything feels so different and I've been with you so long and I've tried my hardest and, please, please please you promised, please just make it like before, I, you—yuh-you told me I was perfect the way I was! YOU SAID WE COULD BE A FAMILY AGAIN! You said... y-y-you said..."

She inhaled.

"—MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM—"

Yang may not have accrued any actual damage to fuel her, but it spoke to her stubborn ways and how much she sheerly did not want this to happen that the renewed flurry of frenzied thrashing when Ozwen's slender hand reached out for her saw a few more of the arms snap and fade away as she screamed and sobbed and spouted incoherent pleas in the direction of Ozwen, Blake, Summer, anyone who might listen, anyone she hoped might change their mind and finally decide they cared for her.

But nobody came.

Blake didn't see herself as noble; not one bit. Her cause, for certain, the goal at the end, as pure as it could be. But a noble hero didn't slit throats in the dark or brutalize teenagers for standing up for what they believed. She'd always been a weapon, a tool to be levied against problems by the true heroes of the faunus. Whatever kindhearted rebel the other Blake had grown into being had been ground to dust and reforged into something that would bring real change to the faunus, instead of championing humanity's battles while her own kind continued to suffer.

But that forging had still happened around the same core, the same soul. She could accept punishing failure, she embraced the necessity of bringing violence and destruction down upon those who got in the way of their goals, but...

"...Lord Ozpin-"

"...Weeeeeeeellllllll... there is one thing you could do."

She intoned, voice so quiet and dull it was impossible to make out much in the way of any affectation to it, in stark contrast to before. When she rose, there was a slow, languorous quality to her movements as she stretched out as much as she could and arched her back in a manner that was deliberate in its sensuality, meant to highlight particular curves as she turned her gaze back up to her master.

"Maybe, just maybe, could youuuuuuuuuu... scratch behind my ear for just a sec? Riiiiiiiiiight..."

She jerked her head, flicking her tangle of hair back to expose a single earring that gleamed in time with her crooked grin as she scooted and nuzzled in the direction of Ozwen's touch.

"...here. Oops! Sorry, daddy. Pretty pretty please? I mean, I'd get it myself but I'm a little tied up at the moment. Not that there's anything WRONG with that! Pahahahahahahaha!~" The brawler threw her head back entirely, letting it hang unnaturally to one side and erupting in a deranged, raucous fit of giggles that seemed to reverberate all around the confines of the throne room as she scanned its occupants once again, waggling her eyebrows in search of a laugh. As though what they had just witnessed were no more than the latest episode of an extremely disturbing dysfunctional family sitcom, and this the cue for the next laugh track.

"Ehh? Ehhhh? C'mon people, anything? Aren't I adorable? A̵i̶n̷'̷t̵ ̷I̷ ̷j̴u̶s̴t̵ ̷a̸ ̸f̷u̵c̵k̶i̶n̴'̵ ̷ri̵o̶t̴?̷"̵

For just a moment, the briefest of seconds, the look that crossed Ozwen's face was extremely telling. The sting of betrayal on Yang's face, the sense of hurt, the sheer despair, the raw pleading, it all ultimately meant nothing if the brief distant expression on that face was any indication. If there had ever been a heart in there, such a thing was buried long ago. As much as she could appear to care when it proved necessary or to reward loyal service, it was only her manipulations. If push came to shove, if she had to sacrifice any of them for her goal...it would be done. Not that she had any intention on making that known. That was why that brief look was there and gone so fast it could have been mistaken as a trick of the light, some level of false concern seeping back into those eyes as Yang screamed out for her mom.

"Relax, child. All will be well." That was all she said, and it was.

When the Dragon she was more familiar with now returned, Ozwen allowed herself a small smile. She even obliged the scratch behind the ear but only for a moment and then she stepped back, though she did not laugh as the blonde likely hoped. As soon as Ozwen was a fair distance away, the remainder of the hands holding Yang down retreated back from where they came, letting her stand. It was just in time as well. The whole of the grimm whale rumbled and an even bigger smile emerged on Ozwen's pale face. "We have arrived." She noted, turning to the general. "If you'll come with me, I'll arrange for a mount to take you to your precious city. I have something to retrieve here, as it were. The rest of you...do as you see fit. Within reason."

Dragon didn't budge an inch from her knees when Ozwen rose to leave her, nor did the direction of her eyes follow her master from the room. It, like her, stayed rooted where it was, transfixed on where her lord had stooped to touch her, and neither breath nor blink disrupted whatever delirious trance the woman appeared to have slipped into in the wake of all that. The sight of Summer, whatever meaning it may have held to her before, appeared as water off a duck's back now. A dull, hazy sheen settled over her crimson eyes, giving the impression of a house with no lights on, and without any apparent further plans or direction in mind she simply knelt there, looking at nothing.

Staring.

Grinning.

Not because anything was funny.

Because she felt so good.

"...."

Whatever she was going to say drifted into nothing as the Dragon finally reverted back to the beast she'd become after Haven. She watched quietly as Ozwen and Carnelian left, then glanced towards the other three faunus in the room.

"...We go."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


"...What the fuck was that?"

Greki's interjection was sudden into the tense silence the quartet had been walking in ever since they'd left the throne room.

"Wolf-"

"No, seriously, what the fuck was that?" Greki forged ahead over Blake's warning tone. "Is that how that guy fulfills promises? Isn't all we're doing like, all of this for just a bunch of promises? I'm just saying, that if I were you and Sienna, I'd turn the new toy-grrkh!"

Greki could still see the hand standing in front of her by the time the hand clasped around her throat and slammed her into the wall, the shock reverberation down through her spine as she thrashed and started to fight back before she felt Blake's hand heating up, freezing in place as the flames licked against your aura.

"It is not your place to question how Lord Ozpin disciplines those under his command. It is none of ours place. If you cannot-"

"Blake"

Bear's massive arm gripped Blake's shoulder, her voice stern.

"No matter if you accept this as Ozpin's way, it is not ours. Release your sister."

"...It is not your place to command me."

"No. But it is my place to advise you against making a mistake you could not take back. This is not you, Blake Belladonna."

"This is exactly who I am." She growled back, her head tilting to glare into Bear's somber eyes. "This is what I was made to be. This way is the only way the faunus will ever be free, to make sure humans like Carnelian are never rule over us again! We kill the monsters with the monsters. We all have known what we had agreed to the moment we did. And we cannot forget it."

By the end of her words, it was unclear who exactly she was talking to.

She shoved off of Greki with a growl, letting the wolf faunus slide down the wall as she stalked back the other way. "Go. You already have your orders."

"We were all meant to return together, Hand." Bear called after her as he helped Greki to her feet.

If she heard him, there was no response as she rounded the corner and disappeared

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Her eyes finally tilted back up towards Ozpin's with a grim frown as she grabbed the mask from beside her and slotted it onto her face, maiden fire leaking from its sides as she spoke

"They will die for it."

Then she was gone, a hazy shadow all that was left in her place before it too faded away

 

[Gus Gungus]

Rather than being the least bit deterred, insulted, intimidated or afraid of anything that the way more dickish Yang had just spoken through the portal, Nora's face only wore a bold, excited grin with just the slightest touch of madness in those wide eyes. This was a really serious confrontation about to go down, possibly deathly so, but she had always been one to enjoy a good fight. That, and she really got a kick out of imagining how the other Yang's expression would look in a few moments.

Nora's response to the Dragon was as could be expected, really LOUD.

That is to say, her opened up grenade launcher fired all half dozen of the heavy explosives at once, the heart decorated projectiles sailing through the portal to slam into the Yang on the other side without so much as a spoken warning. Actions spoke louder than words.

The bruiser swiftly reloaded, letting loose with her entire salvo a second time just to be on the safe side and then reloaded a third time before Magnhild shifted back into melee form. A third bang propelled her forward as she rode upon her weapon and soared through the portal at high speeds, intending to bring the hammer down on a hopefully disoriented Dragon. That Raven quickly followed after, the portal remaining for the rest who were going to go through this one.

Ruby took a deep breath. This was it. Nora had a way about her in getting all eyes to be on her, they just needed to give her a minute or two. Then portal two, and then...

Ruby steadied herself for the situation ahead.

The pseudo-demonic screeching that assailed everyone's eardrums continuously for the duration of both fusillades was all the confirmation anyone needed that Nora's onslaught had found its mark, until the roar of the explosions melded together with the screams and faded into echoes, a close contest as to which was liable to endure longer. Nora's weapon carried more raw destructive power than just about any of her peers, and it was reasonable enough to expect a Dragon who was prone, vulnerable, or at the very least dazed when the Valkyrie soared through the portal and brought the hammer down.

A less reasonable expectation would've been a Dragon who, though singed, rumpled, and already bleeding one half of a crimson mask from the cut she let through her aura as a motivator, otherwise seemed just fine. She was halfway between a knee and her feet, and Magnhild's head was grasped in her taped left hand where it had made it most of the way through its arc before abruptly stopping, the force of impact digging grooves in the floor under her heels and sending a network of deep crevices webbing out from around her knee-high boots.

Her hair, shorter yet somehow wilder than the fluffy curls of the Yang she knew, was ignited with a flame that drew beads of perspiration from Nora's forehead even at this distance. That was worrying.

More concerning was the fact that she had just caught a full-force swing from Magnhild with one hand.

And she wasn't straining.



"Too soft."

BWOOOOOOOM

The impact of the haymaker that slammed into Nora's jaw actually matched that of Ember Celica's trademark boom in volume, and the even louder explosion of Nora breaking the sound barrier was soon to follow as she came to her senses a few seconds later, having actually blacked out from the sheer force her brain just rattled around her skull with. She was back in the inn, tangled in a pile of tables and chairs and staring up at the ceiling, and if she were to hazard a guess somewhere between a quarter and a third of her aura had been devastated by that swing alone.

Raven, as the second soldier into the fray, had about half a second to dodge the Nora-shaped bullet lest she be sent right back through her own portal in turn, and assuming she managed it was now left standing face to face with the final legacy of whatever she and Tai had, tresses the same shade of gold as him already staining crimson. Dragon had dropped back down on her haunches after the punch, poised like a predator with fingers tracing the floor between her legs and head lolled lazily to one side in amusement as she slowly raised her human hand to where the blood was thickest, letting it trickle over the back of her knuckles.

"Gee, ma. This sudden interest is so off-brand. What is this, some kinda punishment? You bringing the entire neighborhood through to spank me?"

Her eyes lidded, the hand fell to her lips, and she licked the blood off in one motion as her taunting tone dropped to a husky, sensuous whisper.

"Have I been that bad a girl?"​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

If the two were in as dire need of a pallet cleanse from Atlas's frigid tundras and technological monoliths as everyone else was, there really couldn't have been any more of a polar opposite extreme than Vacuo.

Long ago, eras before Atlas ever touched the sky or Nicholas Schnee traded his pickaxe for a ledger, it had been the most opulent and decadent of Remnant's four kingdoms. A bountiful oasis where sultans and viziers drank in the sun, living large off the profits of soil even richer in natural Dust deposits than Solitas—this, like so many other things about life in Remnant, proved to be impermanent. Comfort gave way to greed, decadence gave way to decay, and years of war, strife, intemperance and ecological disasters brought on by the climate had reduced the once splendid kingdom to something more resembling the tomb of its former self. The tan brick alleys and streets of its central city were faded and cracked to the point they all resembled one another, many of the statues of rulers and heroes past built to function as landmarks now featureless and indistinct. It was a labyrinth, and not one particularly welcome to outsiders who stuck out as sorely as Cinder and Arthur did; Vacuo during the day was about as dangerous as Mantle at night. And Vacuo at night...

Their temporary accommodation was adjacent to the market district, and the streets oscillated between bustling and eerily quiet seemingly at random depending on what turn they took. One moment they'd be picking their way through rows of stalls lit by flickering neon signs, peddlers who could spot a huntress and huntsman a mile away attempting to flag them down and demonstrate their wares, dust crystals of questionable purity slashed down to a pittance. The next would find them staring down a long, dark, unwelcoming alleyway, devoid of life and noise. It was hard to say which was worse. The eyes that tracked them through the more crowded stretches were hungry, unfriendly, and impossible to ignore in the way they lingered on the bulges under their cloaks even if lengths were taken to keep the relics concealed, but at least they were eyes they could see. Some of those alleys... it was difficult to pinpoint what it was, but one or two they deemed it wise to turn away from out of simple intuition alone. The malice that came rolling out from the dark there extended beyond that of mere pickpockets or thieves.

None of this was helped by the fact that someone was following them. It had taken a few experimental twists and turns to be sure, but whoever it was wasn't making much of an effort at hiding it outside of keeping their distance; their cloaked, hooded figure was rendered even more featureless by the cowl pulled up over their nose, and there was no apparent urgency in their step as they nevertheless followed along doggedly, stopping when they stopped and inevitably emerging from some shortcut or other to resume the trail whenever they quickened their pace in an attempt to lose them. It ended up being so much of a distraction they nearly didn't stop themselves in time to keep from walking straight into the dishevelled merchant who popped up screaming in their field of vision, frenetically brandishing a pair of matching t-shirts that read 'I'm with stupid ' and 'At least I'm still cute' and trying to usher them back over to his stall.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! Special offer!!!!! 90% off, one night only!!! My two buddies here only!!!! The next minute only!!!!!! Some people were just BORN to have these shirts!!!!!!!! Tell me what it's gonna take!!!!!"​

...the hell is this stalker's probl--



Cinder's thought about the person trailing them was thoroughly interrupted by one of the more obnoxious street peddlers practically leaping into sight, shouting his lungs out about his shirts and doing everything short of giving them away for free. She had barely managed to skid to a halt before she would have slammed right into him, fortunately enough. She stared on in shock, about to shift that expression into an awkward smile and explain that she was not at all interested, but it didn't come, as she focused less on the guy and more on those shirts and what they actually said.

Spoiler: The neutral look of surprise instantly soured

Those shirts, it seemed pretty clear from where she was standing which one was meant for who. "What's that supposed to mean, huh?!" Cinder raised her voice right back at the guy. Owning up to her mistakes with friends and teammates was one thing, but getting straight up insulted by Joe Schmoe off the street was a whole other deal. "What the hell you mean BORN to wear?? How do you even...who do you think you are?!!!" She questioned as she stomped her foot. The person following them and the relic were temporarily forgotten in her irritated mood.​

"Shes' right; how dare you imply she's cute" Watts' ever dry voice cut in before he grabbed the side of Cinder's sleeve and dragged her along as he puttered on past on his strange little hover scooter. "Come along, don't make eye contact, street vendors use the same rules as pokemon trainers."

Despite his lackadaisical pace and words, he was far more focused on their erstwhile tail than his partner. As soon as they were past the magically accurate t-shirt man, he once more had them round a corner into an alleyway, before he gripped Cinder's side, gave her a quick shush, before the little scooter that could turned up its thrusters and boosted them all the way up to the rooftop of one of the buildings surrounding the alleyway. He coasted the scooter closer towards the middle before he hopped off and crept towards the edge, hoping to peer downwards and get a better look at who, exactly, was on their backs

 

[MidwayLives]

​

"Oh, brother. This'll be good." She yawned, rubbing her eyes briefly before she let herself stretch out with head propped up by the elbow in quintessential 'draw me like one of your Atlesian girls' position, calling lazily over to the gate in an unconcerned drawl. "Hell-oooooooooooo? Remnant to deadbeat? You and whatever combination of dick twitches are lining up behind you wanna go ahead and rethink this big idea of yours? C'mon. I'll wait. Long enough for you to put two and two together and realise how fucked you all are the second so much as one of you puts a single foot through that portal, at least."

She scoffed loudly with a grimace, shaking her head before she jerked it in the direction of the Seer grimm bobbing silently in the corner.

"Smile, you're on TV. I mean, is there even a play here? Do you have any idea how desperate you all look right now?"

Neo's hands balled up into fists and she started to move forward-
​

Nora's response to the Dragon was as could be expected, really LOUD.

That is to say, her opened up grenade launcher fired all half dozen of the heavy explosives at once, the heart decorated projectiles sailing through the portal to slam into the Yang on the other side without so much as a spoken warning. Actions spoke louder than words.

The bruiser swiftly reloaded, letting loose with her entire salvo a second time just to be on the safe side and then reloaded a third time before Magnhild shifted back into melee form. A third bang propelled her forward as she rode upon her weapon and soared through the portal at high speeds, intending to bring the hammer down on a hopefully disoriented Dragon. That Raven quickly followed after, the portal remaining for the rest who were going to go through this one.

^ Was all Neo had to say about that.
​

BWOOOOOOOM

The impact of the haymaker that slammed into Nora's jaw actually matched that of Ember Celica's trademark boom in volume, and the even louder explosion of Nora breaking the sound barrier was soon to follow as she came to her senses a few seconds later, having actually blacked out from the sheer force her brain just rattled around her skull with. She was back in the inn, tangled in a pile of tables and chairs and staring up at the ceiling, and if she were to hazard a guess somewhere between a quarter and a third of her aura had been devastated by that swing alone.

"...!"

The force of the punch and Nora being yeeted back through the portal was a bit of a surprise.

To the point that Neo shattered to avoid getting caught up in that Valkryie shaped projectile.

Glancing over at the portal, she weighed her options. She was going into this without Hush. Her trusty weapon having been lost to her after her defeat at Weiss's hands.



Ah well.

She hopped through the portal and landed as gracefully as one could.
​

"Gee, ma. This sudden interest is so off-brand. What is this, some kinda punishment? You bringing the entire neighborhood through to spank me?"

Her eyes lidded, the hand fell to her lips, and she licked the blood off in one motion as her taunting tone dropped to a husky, sensuous whisper.

"Have I been that bad a girl?"

There she was standing without a care in the world.

The one who'd killed this world's Roman.

"..."​

 

[MidwayLives]

The impact of the haymaker that slammed into Nora's jaw actually matched that of Ember Celica's trademark boom in volume, and the even louder explosion of Nora breaking the sound barrier was soon to follow as she came to her senses a few seconds later, having actually blacked out from the sheer force her brain just rattled around her skull with. She was back in the inn, tangled in a pile of tables and chairs and staring up at the ceiling, and if she were to hazard a guess somewhere between a quarter and a third of her aura had been devastated by that swing alone.

Masque watched as Nora was flung back through the portal.

She'd asked Cinder earlier to spare her sister if things came down to it. Arresting her would be all that was needed, right?

But after that display of strength, Masque wondered if it'd ever even come to that.

"Heh."

She chuckled softly while not leaving her chair.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

...the hell is this stalker's probl--



Cinder's thought about the person trailing them was thoroughly interrupted by one of the more obnoxious street peddlers practically leaping into sight, shouting his lungs out about his shirts and doing everything short of giving them away for free. She had barely managed to skid to a halt before she would have slammed right into him, fortunately enough. She stared on in shock, about to shift that expression into an awkward smile and explain that she was not at all interested, but it didn't come, as she focused less on the guy and more on those shirts and what they actually said.

Spoiler: The neutral look of surprise instantly soured

Those shirts, it seemed pretty clear from where she was standing which one was meant for who. "What's that supposed to mean, huh?!" Cinder raised her voice right back at the guy. Owning up to her mistakes with friends and teammates was one thing, but getting straight up insulted by Joe Schmoe off the street was a whole other deal. "What the hell you mean BORN to wear?? How do you even...who do you think you are?!!!" She questioned as she stomped her foot. The person following them and the relic were temporarily forgotten in her irritated mood.

The vendor, to a surprising degree for a Vacuan street merchant whose sense of tact or consideration had long since been abandoned in the pursuit of profits squeezed from tourists through sheer social obligation, actually seemed a bit embarrassed by Cinder's ire. He blinked twice, simply widening his grin as though some invisible script had been flipped and left him stuck for what to say. It was awkward.

"...I n-never said which shirt was for who?"

He seemed almost relieved as Watts swept past, though that didn't stop him from turning like an NPC and continuing to shout new offers at the pair as they retreated.

"Huntsmen and huntresses only! Beacon Academy students only! People whose names begin with A and C only! I have so many t-shirts!!!"

Though the voice may have faded in volume, the level of earnestness and dedication with which this guy wanted to sell them tacky cheaply made shirts never wavered until it disappeared from their ears' radius entirely. Though the street they were adjacent to wasn't quiet, the night air was eerily so as they scaled the building, the gaggles of people and market vendors giving way to nothing save the desert breeze and meager chirping of crickets. Their view of the street from above offered some startling insight as to why.

It was empty.

Where previously there had been markets, loiterers, and loose throngs of the kind of suspect individuals who had a reason to be out this late at night (or, depending on your perspective, early in the morning), there was now nothing. The t-shirt merchant and his stall were nowhere to be seen, little to be seen in general aside from a single flickering street light that cast dancing shadows up and down the isolated brick road. There was only one other detail of note.

Their tail was now much further up the street from where they'd been, leaning up against the wall at the mouth of an alley as darkened and opaque as the one Watts had dipped into and staring right back up at him with a patient air. Their face was still concealed, but it wasn't hard to imagine the smirk under that hood as they stood fully upright, put their feet together and threw a mock military styled salute up towards the rooftop, slowly bringing the hand that had been hidden behind their back up to show off its prize.

Whether or not Watts identified the Relic of Knowledge at a distance before Cinder realized the weight dangling from her waist had, at some point, stopped being the lamp and started being a Pumpkin Pete lunchbox was for them to determine. The figure seemed content either way, sizing the artifact up where it dangled loosely from their grip, and there was little-to-no urgency in their step as they turned and sauntered casually into the alleyway, becoming swallowed up by the shadows in moments.​